UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Dr. Raymund W. Lo
As I soak in the view of serene blue waters and the lush vegetation of the Davao Pearl Farm, I marvel at the beauty and abundance of nature of the Philippines. Yet, we’re in the middle of a crisis of hunger and poverty! A record 12.2 percent of Filipinos experienced hunger in the first quarter of 2022. Approximately 16 percent of the population are self-rated poor. Others continue to struggle with the rising costs of living.
Even certain food items are in short supply—sugar, onions, potatoes (understandable due to the Ukraine situation), and just recently chicken. Then there’s the widespread oversupply and subsequent dumping of tomatoes. Yet we still have to import rice.
Our agricultural sector has been neglected by government and hounded by greedy middlemen and hoarders, who benefited from the artificially induced situation. No wonder it’s the poorest performing sector of the economy. How do we change this narrative?
This inequity must be addressed by the current administration before we get to the point of no return and face massive social unrest. Food cartels must be dismantled and farmers must be assisted in getting their produce to markets, bypassing the middlemen.
Most of all, our farmers must be helped in their struggle to feed the country without themselves going into poverty and hunger. If the government seriously wants to eliminate or reduce hunger, it must plan on a basic degree of food self-sufficiency. As the Ukraine -Russia war continues, we will see more disruptions in the world economy and expect more food shortages. Let’s at least be self-sufficient in staples such as rice, vegetables, and protein sources like chicken and pork. We will have to cushion the impacts of world-crisis situations. And yes, I think we can.
Can the DA call a summit of all stakeholders-farmers, food producers, importers and of course, consumers to hear out the basic concerns? Can the DA assist the farmers in planning of crops to grow and financing of their farm inputs provided they produce what we need and not in excess so as not to create a glut that puts the farmers in the sad situation of throwing out their produce?
Transporting produce is also an issue that has to be tackled so as not to let the middlemen take advantage of the situation. If need be, the DA should absorb the extra produce in case of bumper harvests and turn it into processed products for sale later on when supply is short. If this is too much to ask of the DA, then it should appeal to the major food producers to step in. But the private companies should not have to end up with the short end of the stick if they agree to this. Time and again, the private companies get shafted by government bureaucracy because either it doesn’t care or is swayed by other considerations (the Covid vaccine situation comes to mind).
What about food products we can’t grow, like wheat on flour? Substitutes are being proposed such as root crops, cassava and potatoes that can be used as flour substitutes for bread and baking. Our food technologists are smart enough to figure it out for sure.
On the consumer side, let’s patronize our local farmers more by buying local and, if possible, directly from them or their associations. I’ve put more emphasis on buying locally produced fruits— mangoes, bananas, lanzones, and yes, the king of fruits, the durian, which I love. I also wish that we can have more production of endemic fruits like lipote, duhat, bignay which were the fruits of my childhood. Incidentally, these were found to have very high levels of anti-oxidants and may help combat the ever growing threat of metabolic syndrome due to our modern eating habits and lack of exercise.
Imported fruits are now so ubiquitous and easy to buy, unlike during the martial law days when their importation was highly regulated and we got to enjoy them only during Christmas at very high prices. Let’s not favor them now over our locally grown ones. We’ll save a lot of foreign currency if we go for local produce. Excessive consumption of high sugar fruits like grapes can also lead to diabetes mellitus.
Using an all-of-country approach will definitely help in alleviating poverty and hunger but we have to start with producing more local food products that will benefit consumers and farmers alike. All it needs is sincerity and the will to help our less fortunate countrymen.