Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
TO head off a looming agriculture and food crisis, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has ordered "strategic agriculture measures" implemented immediately.
Marcos, who has assumed the reins of the Department of Agriculture (DA), is expected to lay out his food security strategy during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) today, July 25, Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez said.
"It is his thrust, it is his vision for us not only to have food security but food sovereignty. Meaning, if we can feed ourselves as a nation, if we can feed ourselves as Filipinos, I think we are on our way to where we want to be, much like where our neighbors are," Rodriguez said during a recent interview.
He said the President "is aware of the impending food price crisis and probably food supply crisis," and that is why he took over the DA.
Press Secretary Rose Beatrix "Trixie" Cruz-Angeles acknowledged that the coronavirus pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, climate change, and oil price hikes are among the factors driving global food insecurity.
Cruz-Angeles assured the public that the Marcos administration is ready to stabilize the food supply and improve food production.
"Gaya nang nasabi na ni President Marcos, mangangailangan 'yan ng agarang tugon, at dapat agaran ding simulan ang pangmatagalang mga solusyon (Just like what President Marcos said, that will be immediately addressed by looking for long-term solutions)," she said.
Marcos has said his administration's efforts to reduce poverty and hunger should shift from "import-centric in which we rely heavily on importation of food products to feed the people, to production-centric in which our food requirements will be free from the dictates of market forces."
He said that only by strengthening the agricultural sector can the country achieve food sufficiency and food security.
The ultimate goal, however, is food sovereignty, he said.
"We must create a system that would allow Filipinos to reclaim power in the food supply chain. We are basically an agricultural country, so we have the resources and the land and the people to attain that food sovereignty," he said.
The President noted that the agricultural sector must provide a secure and strategic food supply for the economy to thrive and for the country to grow into an industrialized state.
He also stressed the need to revitalize research and development and to determine the best crop varieties and the best farm techniques that will work best for the different regions.
Earlier, some agri-producers said that Marcos' vision of food self-sufficiency will only be possible if the government moves away from the massive importation of fish, rice, pork, chicken and vegetables.
Tugon Kabuhayan's Asis Perez, former Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources director and convener of the food security and livelihood advocacy group, is confident the country can produce the food supply that the population requires.
Perez said it should start by ensuring local food producers have enough public and private support.
"If the President is serious about food self-sufficiency, it would be a game-changer. It would mean available and affordable Philippine-produced food. This is both a challenge and an opportunity to local food producers," he said.
"What we do need from the government is a policy environment that would make it possible," Perez said.
Management Association of the Philippines President Rogelio Singson expects the President to reveal his plans to address the looming food crisis and soaring prices of basic goods during his SONA.
Singson said that Marcos must encourage more investments that will boost the productivity of the agriculture and fishery sectors.
This can be done by providing more government resources to farmers and fishermen and by lifting land-use restrictions.
"Let's put more resources on post-harvest facilities and farm inputs to the agricultural sector, especially to increase our rice production," Singson said during a recent television interview.
The Marcos government can push for public-private partnerships in funding infrastructure projects, which Singson said he did as Public Works and Highways secretary during the term of the late president Benigno Aquino 3rd.
Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan earlier said Marcos has directed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to prioritize infrastructure projects that will help attain food security.
The projects include farm-to-market roads, Bonoan said.
The DPWH reported that last month, it completed local and farm-to-market road projects in Cabanatuan City and the towns of Gabaldon and General Tinio in Nueva Ecija.
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