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THE Second Quarter 2017 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 9.5 percent or an estimated 2.2 million families experienced involuntary hunger. While this is significantly lower than the Second Quarter 2016 SWS statistics, it still shows that many Filipinos experience hunger. It is ironic that millions of Filipino go hungry even if our country is so rich in natural resources.
The Department of Agriculture encourages Western Visayans to be responsible consumers of rice, that is, avoid rice wastage. The goal is to ensure the country’s food security and avert food shortage and hunger. But responsible consumption is just one way to achieve it. The importance of providing the necessary support for agriculture, especially for small farmers, could not be overemphasized.
Under the proposed 2018 national budget, P2 billion is allocated to subsidize irrigation service fees being paid by farmers to the National Irrigation Administration (NIA). This is good. Our farmers who feed the nation are among the poorest of the poor who need government support and intervention. The free irrigation for farmers, which was first introduced in the 2017 national budget and must be sustained in the 2018 national budget, is a big boost for the agriculture sector.
Lowering of production costs of small farmers will help achieve food security, encourage more citizens to engage in or go back to farming, and improve the income of our small farmers. Under the said measure, fees being collected by NIA from its irrigation beneficiaries will be discontinued and the management and maintenance of irrigation facilities will be turned over to the beneficiaries and will be provided with professional management support.
But here’s one practical idea – the establishment of vegetable gardens in backyards, schools and communities. These address both hunger and malnutrition. The government has current programs that already promote community gardening. The Department of Education has Gulayan sa Paaralan program, while the household beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program are encouraged to engage in organic backyard and communal farming. All Filipinos should be involved in this one. This is not only for food production, it also helps create and preserve healthy ecosystems, conserve the country’s crop genetic diversity and heirloom plants as a strategy for climate change adaptation, mitigation and resiliency, and promote public awareness on ecological and sustainable use of land resources for food production and other products.
We have to provide our people the kind of support that will have long-term effects to effectively reduce, and hopefully eliminate, hunger, as well as malnutrition and poverty.
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