Food insecurity: A serious concern

We don’t have to travel far. Right where we are, we can see so much uneven distribution of food.  The irony is, while some are in fitness gyms spending thousands and, at the same time, go for nutritionist-planned diets to lose weight others are underweight as their pockets are starving for pennies and their wallets are on a diet.

Such a scenario is obtaining in third world countries like ours. That is what we call food insecurity. This is quite insulting. Globally, aside from being known as one of the largest exporters of household helpers, we are considered as an agricultural country. Pertinent facts support this. All these years, a huge 31% or about 1/3 of our labor force is in the agriculture sector. However, it only contributes a measly 11% to our GDP.  Simply put, we are an agricultural country based on input not on output. What keeps our economy going is the contribution of our service and industry sectors which account for about 90%.  Sadly, this has been going on for decades.

Thus, as has been the country’s norm, we’ve always opted for rice importation. With our population growing at the vicinity of 1.7 percent a year or close to 1.8 million, it seems that we will, probably, embrace this as a permanent solution.

Recently, another development rocked the agriculture sector again. This time, the fishing industry, as the Department of Agricultural (DA) announced that it shall allow importation of “galunggong” or round scad fish.  Reportedly, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol “allowed up to 17,000 metric tons of galunggong imports with a 5% tariff as the closed fishing season nears.” This closed fishing season, which will be from November, 2018 until March, 2019, is intended to avoid overfishing and at the same time allow fish to propagate.

Moreover, the DA Secretary added that, “the importation was allowed to ensure sufficient supply of galunggong during the holidays, when consumption is usually high.” Thus, as the certificate will show, “galunggong may be imported as early as September 1 and up to the last day of December 2018 or until revoked by the DA.”

Just like rice imports, importation of “galunggong” is not new at all.  Records with the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that we imported galunggong sometime in 2016 from China and Viet Nam.   Despite having this precedent and the decision to allow, not only fish traders, but fisherfolks and fish vendors association to import as well, it was still met with a lot of criticisms. The reason is obvious, while the bigtime traders and the affluent fishing magnates can rake in a lot of money from this, the inadequately capitalized fisherfolks and fish vendors association cannot take advantage of this opportunity.

Apparently, in both instances (rice and fish imports), we can have countless of discourses and arguments as to how will these moves benefit some and disadvantage the others. Straightforwardly, however, these arguments will never help us solve these nagging food shortages. What is important now is for the DA to come up with sustainable solutions to address these concerns.

Thus, to reemphasize, we should provide farmers the necessary infrastructure, such as, irrigation, storage facilities, transport equipment, packing and processing facilities. Moreover, supervised loans may also be considered to finance farm inputs. Done well, only then will we be able to let them till their lands profitably.

Moreover, as the land distribution to beneficiaries of the land reform program are struggling with their small pieces of lots, the Department of Agrarian Reforms must seriously step in and try to group them together to a size where they can afford to get professional help. As it is right now, what they get from their lots are just enough for their own needs.

Equally important, we must not be dependent on the fishes we get from the open seas or from existing corals and reefs. We must develop inland sources, like new fish ponds. Or, probably, new fish pens near the shorelines or lakes. Through these ponds and pens, we can raise milk fish, tilapia, sea or brackish water shrimps, fresh water shrimps (ulang),etc. If the ordinary families cannot afford these expensive species, inland ponds beside rivers and lakes can always raise carps. Just like “galunggong”, this is also considered as a “poor man’s fish”.

Indeed, food insecurity is a major concern. This government must wake up. Do nothing, we will all starve.