THE STEEP decline of Iloilo Province’s agriculture sector in 2024, as reported by this paper recently, should jolt the entire Western Visayas into action. When the region’s top food-producing province posts a 15.9 percent contraction in agriculture, forestry, and fishing, the warning is not Iloilo’s alone — it reverberates across provincial borders, threatening the food security and price stability of the whole region.
Iloilo Province’s economy grew by a modest 1.4 percent last year, its slowest in years, dragged down by agricultural losses exceeding P1 billion due to prolonged drought, livestock disease outbreaks, and illegal, unregulated fishing. This slump exposes how deeply intertwined the economies of Western Visayas are — how a drought in Iloilo can mean pricier rice in Antique, reduced feed supply in Capiz, and higher fish prices even in nearby Negros Occidental (which is now part of the Negros Island Region). The regional food chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and right now, that link is showing alarming strain.
This problem underscores the urgent need for regional coordination in responding to climate-induced shocks. Western Visayas cannot afford fragmented efforts when droughts and dry spells, or intense rain and flooding no longer respect provincial boundaries. A shared strategy on water resource management — particularly inter-provincial irrigation and reservoir systems — could spell the difference between recurring losses and regional resilience. The same principle must apply to pest management and livestock disease control, where early warnings and rapid response systems should be shared across provinces rather than siloed within them.
Equally important is strengthening local food production systems to reduce dependency on imports and inter-island shipments. Every province in Western Visayas has the potential to produce something critical to the regional food basket — rice from Iloilo, corn from Capiz, fish from Guimaras, sugar from Negros Occidental, and vegetables from Antique. What’s lacking is an integrated framework that ensures surplus from one area fills the deficit of another without price distortions or logistical bottlenecks.
The state of Iloilo Province’s agriculture is a wake-up call to regional planners: economic growth built on the back of struggling farmers and fisherfolk is unsustainable. When agriculture collapses, it drags down not just a province but an entire region’s stability. Western Visayas must move beyond reactive measures — beyond relief distribution and crop replanting — to long-term investments in irrigation modernization, soil rehabilitation, drought-resistant crops, and sustainable fisheries.
Food security is not merely a provincial concern — it is a regional lifeline. And if Western Visayas fails to protect and strengthen that lifeline, the next food crisis will not come as a surprise. It will be the inevitable result of warnings ignored and lessons unlearned.
