Food Sovereignty! Rediscovering The Riches & Resources Of Our Motherland

One of my first acts when I was appointed by President Duterte as Agriculture Secretary was to ask the Department old timers to give me a list of heavily imported Agricultural Products which could be grown or produced locally.
The list was long and shocking with Rice occupying the top spot.
What was scandalizing was that we were even importing products which could be easily grown like Coffee, Cacao, Sibuyas, Bawang, “Kamatis,” Monggo and Langka.
Thus started a program which crafted Master Plans for the development of the priority crops.
Unfortunately, my short 3-year stint as Agriculture Secretary prevented me from seeing the projects through.
Now, even as a Citizen Farmer, I still carry on the advocacy to develop and promote local products.
Lately, I made a pleasant discovery of the marketing potentials of an endemic but rare banana variety called “Saging Tindok” as a better and healthier alternative to the imported Potato Chips.
I was inspired by the reaction of my Australian cousin-in-law, Gary Keane, who said that the home-made “Saging Tindok” tasted much like Potato Chips, that now I am undertaking the mass production of planting materials through Tissue Culture.
Every year, the country imports 29-million metric tons of potato with a estimated value of P1.5-B.
Assuming that 10% of that goes to importing Chipping Potatoes, that’s P150-M potential earnings for our local farmers.
That is a lot of money and a lot of jobs involved in the production.
Besides, with the raging conflicts worldwide and climatic aberrations which could affect the global food supply, it is always wise to develop our backyard food sources.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!