Food Sufficient Philippines: A Dream We Could Achieve, If… (2nd of 5-Parts)

Food Sufficient Philippines: A Dream We Could Achieve, If…
(2nd of 5-Parts)
By Emmanuel F. Piñol, PhD
(On Saturday, March 8, I was invited to a Roundtable Discussion hosted by the SAMAHAN Political Affairs & Engagement Department of the Ateneo de Davao University to present inputs on the impact of Food Security to Philippine Democracy. I am sharing my presentation with the followers of this page in 5 parts.)
Shortly after President Rodrigo Duterte appointed me as Agriculture Secretary, I saw the need to craft a National Food Security Strategy to serve as the road map for the Department of Agriculture.
The National Food Security Strategy which I designed had four major components:
1.The National Food Consumption Quantification Study;
2.The National Food Supply and Demand Map;
3.The Agriculture Market Reform Program
4. Water Source Protection and Conservation Program
All these programs would make food available and affordable while increasing productivity of the agriculture sector, thus addressing food availability and rural poverty simultaneously.
FOOD CONSUMPTION STUDY
In 2016, the “National Food Consumption Quantification Study” was proposed as a joint program of the Dept. of Agriculture and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO), which later received a UN-FAO funding of $300,000.
The NFCQS started by the UN-FAO in 2018 and completed in 2019 aimed at providing data for the following concerns:
1. What kind of food do Filipinos prefer to eat;
2. What is the consumption level of these types of food?
3. Where and how could these types of food be produced in huge volumes?
4. How long could the Philippines’ land and water resources sustain the supply of these types of food?
The NFCQS was completed in 2019 but the results were not used in succeeding planning programs after I resigned.
FOOD SUPPLY & DEMAND MAP
In 2018, the DA conducted a National Food Security Summit which invited farmers groups and local governments to a 2-day workshop to present the products which could be sourced from their areas and the DA support needed to boost the production.
There were four clusters: Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and the participants included fishermen from as far as Sitangkay, Tawitawi.
The goal was to craft a National Food Supply and Demand Map which would be digitalized to obtain a real-time availability of basic food commodities needed daily by Filipino families.
The NFSD Map indicated:
1. Provinces or Regions which produce basic commodities in excess of local requirements;
2.Cities, Provinces or Regions which would need the excess commodities.
A perfect model for this would be Tawi-tawi which is in dire need of Chicken, Vegetables, Fruits and Rice (smuggled from Sabah) but is the source of huge volumes of fish for areas like Metro Manila.
REFORMING THE MARKET
The weakest link in the Philippine Food Supply Chain is the antiquated Marketing System where between the Farm Gate and the Kitchen of Filipino families, the basic food items go through several tiers of traders and middlemen jacking up the price by as much as 10-fold.
The Marketing Anomaly starts with the local “financier” who loans money to the farmer or the fishermen on the condition that the produce is delivered to him exclusively at a price he dictates.
From the Village Financier to the Vendor in the Market and finally the Filipino Consumer, the products’ price balloon from P15 per kilo to as high as P80 per kilo, based on an actual study conducted on the Benguet Carrots in 2018.
This anomalous Marketing System harms productivity because Farmers and Fishermen who earn very little have less motivation to produce more while consumers have to pay higher amount for the food items thus causing Food Inflation.
WATER SOURCE PROTECTION & MANAGEMENT
While I have outlined the strategies on how to achieve Food Sufficiency, there are institutional reforms which must be undertaken to ensure a sustainable food supply for the next generation.
There must be a government policy to identify and protect water sources, including the passage of strict laws to address human encroachment into critical watersheds of the country.
The protection of Water Sources should be sacred and no other agricultural or economic activities, including Mining, should be allowed in areas where our rivers and springs flow from.
Government must also implement a National Water Conservation and Management Program which would involve the establishment of upstream dams and water catchments, including Small Water Impounding Systems downstream, to ensure that run-off water would be stored for future agricultural uses.
To emphasize the importance of this program, everybody must be reminded that there is No Agriculture When There Is No Water and that Food Grows Where Water Flows.
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
#AgricultureIsIntergenerational!
(Attached is an image of the Philippine Star report written by Louise Maureen Simeon on the UN FAO NFCQS.)