The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an agency under the United Nations, has allocated $300,000 for the conduct of a study on food production and food consumption in the face of rapid population growth in the Philippines.
The National Food Consumption Quantification Survey (NFCQS), one of the major advocacies of the Department of Agriculture under the administration of President Rody Duterte, aims to determine the food requirements of Filipinos 50 years from today.
The study will provide answer to the following questions:
1. What food do Filipinos prefer to eat?
2. How much of this food do they consume?
3. Where and how do we produce this food?
4. How much of this food do we need to produce for Filipinos 10, 20 or 50 years from now?
5. Up to what point will the land and aquatic resources of the country be able to supply the food needs of a bigger population?
6. How do we produce food using less land and water?
7. How do we wean Filipino consumers from their dependence on food commodities which require large areas to grow?
At the start of his Presidency, I briefed President Duterte that even if the country achieves rice sufficiency, maintaining the level of food security will be fleeting and temporary unless the massive population growth is checked.
Right after I was appointed Secretary of Agriculture, I sought the help of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the conduct of a National Food Consumption Quantification Study.
I had a series of meetings with FAO Representative in the Philippines Jose Luis Fernandez to seek the help of the world food body to conduct a scientific study on Food Consumption in the Philippines.
This was one of the major innovations in Agriculture which I and then Mayor Rody Duterte discussed long before he agreed to run for President.
The other innovation is the National Color-Code Agriculture Guide Map which will help farmers determine what crops are suitable in their areas.
This is now accessible on line through www.farmersguidemap.gov.ph.
People have to understand that the 30-million hectare land area and the width of the seas within the country’s EEZ, including the 25-million hectare continental shelf east of Luzon called the Philippine Rise, are finite.
There will be a point in the life of this nation when the land and the seas will no longer be able to produce enough food for Filipinos.
This is something that our leaders must understand and appreciate that the need to manage population is not an affront on a religious dogma but part of the struggle for the survival of the nation.
Farmers can only produce as much food as there are lands to till and fishermen could only catch as much fish as there are seas to sail.
Beyond that, not even the best agriculturist could ensure that there will be enough food for everybody.
Food sufficiency is directly correlated to the number of mouths to feed.
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