FINDING ANSWERS
Former SenatorAtty. Joey Lina
These are difficult times and the near future is beset with uncertainties as the coronavirus pandemic continues its rampage.
Around 5.2 million Filipino families or 20.9 percent of the population found themselves with nothing to eat at least for once during a three month period starting last May, according to an SWS survey. A rising trend of involuntary hunger was evident: For July, hunger was up by 4.2 points from the 16.7 percent reflected May, and by a total of 12.1 points from the 8.8 percent in December 2019.
Another SWS survey last month revealed that joblessness across the country has reached a record high of 45.5 percent, a staggering 28-point surge from the 17.1 percent reported in December 2019. The National Mobile Phone Survey conducted from July 3 to 6 marked a new record high from the 34.4 percent recorded in March 2012.
With hunger and joblessness both ravaging our country, including the pandemic’s perennial threat to the health of Filipinos, the situation obviously appears bleak. The pressing need to do something about our predicament has become more urgent than ever.
In my Teleradyo program last Sunday, former Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor, president of the Federation of Free Farmers, presented inspiring ideas. Foremost among them is to promote urban agriculture which can do a lot to address the challenges pertaining to what he termed as “FPJ – food, pandemic health, and jobs.”
He cited what Cubans did in the late eighties and early nineties when Cuba was devastated with the loss of valuable aid and trading privileges resulting from the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The implosion of economic deals between Cuba and petroleum-rich USSR led to the shrinking of the Cuban economy dependent on the Soviet Union.
The resulting hardships primarily caused by extreme reductions of rationed food supplies at state-subsidized prices compelled the Cuban people to resort to organic agriculture in urban areas. Montemayor said that in their massive efforts to address widespread hunger at the time, Cubans were planting fruits and vegetables, and raising chickens in almost every place feasible – even in their apartments, rooftops, in balconies.
So why not do the same now in the Philippines as we are faced with the “FPJ” challenges? Montemayor said urban gardening also includes ornamentals and herbs. Because herbal plants can boost one’s immunity, Montemayor said our improved immunity system would lessen the risks of getting infected easily with the coronavirus. And with the satisfaction that one may get while doing something worthwhile amid the restrictions on mobility during community quarantine periods, mental health is also maintained.
With extensive urban gardening and processing, the need for livelihood activities for the jobless is addressed as the produce generates much-needed income, aside from ensuring that there would be sufficient food to eat.
I fully agree with Mr. Montemayor because I myself have seen it can be done. During my two terms as governor of Laguna province, we pursued the Food Always In The Home (FAITH) program that enabled people to produce clean nutritious food in their backyards, or even in tight spaces with the use of pots and other containers, thereby reducing home food cost by as much as 30 to 50 percent, and improving family nutrition.
The program, which has since been adapted by the National Nutrition Council, can be done on a nationwide scale to ensure adequate, or even more than adequate food supply to bring down prices in these perilous times. And local government units can do a lot to encourage people to plant food for their own consumption.
LGUs can indeed do a lot to boost agriculture not only in urban settings but especially so in rural areas where the vast majority of poor Filipinos are situated. About two of every three poor Filipinos are in rural areas and are largely dependent on agricultural income and employment.
Mr. Montemayor said a competitive environment can push local officials to exert more efforts on agriculture. When I was head of the League of Provinces and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines in the late nineties, local officials were deemed food czars and we formulated a program of action on food security that was “specific, measurable, attainable, realizable, and timebound” with specific quotas and targets.
I remember we had a competition in 1999 among the country’s food-producing provinces, with prizes of as much as P100 million for the top winner, P60 million for the second highest food-producing province, and P40 million for the third. The prizes, sourced from the President’s Social Fund and savings of the Office of the President, were to be used for other priority projects of winning provinces. Nueva Ecija was eventually declared the top food-producing province in the country.
To boost agriculture, there is also need to engage the private sector to invest and set up more agri-based industries in the countryside. More income can be derived by value adding, processing, and developing markets for both raw and processed agricultural products.
In these of times of uncertainty, the guiding motto for everyone ought to be: “Plant, plant, plant to meet the challenges of FPJ.”
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