Sustainable agriculture and food security

We need to be increasingly concerned about the state of the agricultural sector. The poverty in rural areas, especially of farmers and fishermen, forces young people to leave the countryside. The rising urbanization has led to the fact, that the average age of a farmer is close to 60 years. This in line with a growing population of 2% annually, could lead to a food shortage in the not-too-distant future. Additionally, as an import- dependent country, the food security is highly vulnerable to market shocks.

Insufficient policies, land reforms and trade agreements hamper investing into the market, which are needed for an inclusive growth. Apart from this, the Philippines belongs to the countries most affected by climate change, which contains unpredictable impacts on the country itself and especially on the Philippine agriculture.

 With the view on administration change in May, our objective is to ensure food–security and to implement a sustainable agriculture; at the same time create the vision that money can be made in agriculture and keep the young generation on the farms. I agree that this is a tall order!

This target can only be achieved in case of a collaboration of the private and public sector. It is necessary that both parties are encouraged to invest into agriculture to achieve self-sufficiency and economic competitiveness.

This objective would also be in line with the urgent need of a reduction in poverty. In order to do that, it is necessary to solve the problems in the agricultural sector, since more than half of the country’s poor live in rural areas. Limited access to education, finance, land titles and to the market make it impossible for small-scale farmers and fishermen to compete successfully. Innovative technologies and seeds as well as efficient supply chains must be implemented to improve productivity and economies of scale. Through innovations and more efficiency, agriculture will become more natural disaster resilient. Besides pests, the rising threat of climate change makes innovation and rethinking indispensable for the country.

Given the need to create inclusive growth, create wealth in the countryside and address food security, the private sector will have a good chance to respond to these opportunities and challenges through discussions with the newly elected government in May. These dialogues should empower farmers and fishermen and implement innovative solutions and technologies.

Let me add, that the Visayas will play an important role in the creation of agri-food supply chains. My friends in Cebu should be driving this! Here are some ideas:

• Reform the land title regime to establish a system that allows farmers to be bankable;

• Facilitate access to finance for smallholders and those benefiting from agrarian reform, with no collateral;

• Establish professional, transparent cooperatives across the country to serve as agricultural hubs and support farmers with access to finance, capacity building in agri-preneurship and agri-business skills, new agricultural techniques and value-added processing;

• Provide processing facilities, serving as a trading hub for agricultural goods to cut out the middleman and provide machinery and agricultural inputs to farmers at fair market prices;

• Invest in transportation and storage infrastructure and facilities to reduce spoilage of products during the transportation / storage process from farm to market;

• Ensure cooperation and alignment between national and local government, in support of the implementation of pro-growth policies and projects for the agriculture sector.

Let’s do all this in 2022!!!

Feedback would be very welcome; contact me at [email protected]