Don’t rely on importation! Widespread Famine Feared As Fertilizer Prices Increase

Nahaharap ang buong mundo sa isang matinding kakulangan ng pagkain dahil sa biglaang pagtaas ng presyo ng abono na siya ginagamit sa mga food exporting countries in the world.
Ayon kay Peter Zeihan, a geopolitical analyst and author, sa isang panayam sa FOX Business, the world is facing “the worst fertilizer situation in modern history in terms of supply” “with fertilizer prices surging to historic highs because of higher input costs and supply chain issues.”
“All three source materials that go into fertilizer (phosphate, nitrogen, potash) are subject to abject shortage. And even if the war were to stop tomorrow, it’s already too late. It’s too late for the planting season for the Northern Hemisphere this year,” Fox News quoted Zeihan as saying.
Ayon kay Zeihan ang tatamaan ng matindi sa fertilizer crisis na ito ay Brazil, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia “as they will likely see significantly lower yields than what is necessary to support the global population.”
The Fox News article further reported: “And as food prices rise, as they’ve been for the last two weeks – and pretty sharply – farmers will do what farmers do. They will plant what they think that they can grow for the greatest bang for their buck,” Zeihan said. “So, I can see (the United States) increasing our production and our exports by a small amount. But the scale of what we’re talking about here is insufficient food for hundreds of millions of people.”
“Manish Raizada, a professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the Canadian University of Guelph, predicted that the crisis has the potential to impact billions of people in developing nations who rely on subsistence farms,” the Fox News article added.
“Anytime essential oil or natural gas prices increase, nitrogen fertilizer prices increase. And the last time this really happened was around 2008 when there was a big shock worldwide. It pushed 150 million more people on earth into chronic malnutrition,” Raizada said. “I really fear that’s happening right now,” the Fox News article concluded.
Ano ang implikasyon ng development na ito sa ating Food Security situation sa ating bansa?
Tulad ng aking matagal nang ipinaglalaban, dapat talagang palakasin natin ang ating local production ng basic food commodities kasi maraming mga factors ang maaring maka-apekto sa supply ng pagkain mula sa ibang bansa.
I had long stressed that Climate Change, Geo-Political Issues and a Pandemic could disrupt the global food supply chain thus the need for us to really support our local food producers and achieve a comfortable level of Food Self-Sufficiency.
Kinutya ako at tinawanan noong sinabi ko na dapat mag-target tayo ng Food Self-Sufficiency but once again, I had been proven right.
Food Security is not a temporary or seasonal concern of government but a timeless issue that should be addressed with long-term programs and plans.
There are no quick fixes or instant solutions and certainly reliance on importation is a wrong and disastrous policy.
I wish our Economic Managers would be humble enough to admit this and pour more support and funds to local food production and protect our farmers and fishermen from the flooding of imports.
#FoodSelfSufficiency!
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
(Credits to Fox News for the image of the headline and the photo of a fertilizer plant in Canada and the quotes culled from an article that Fox News published.)

Source: Manny Piñol FB Page