IN THE previous articles, I wrote about food security. And I underscored the need to shift the understanding of food security from the food sufficiency towards food sovereignty.
The former refers to the situation when food is available at any given time resulting from market dynamics, the demand and supply mechanism, where demand is determined locally, but the supply may come domestically or from imports.
Food sovereignty, on the other hand, is the concept of food security where households and community are food secure because of their ability to grow their own food. It is having food even without the material need for additional income.
I could remember back in the day, I cannot understand why my late father keeps on growing varied types of vegetables, even placing scientific name tags on them. Now as a professional and a struggling economist, I understand the kind of education he was making.
Every household’s intention to bring food into the table should reflect capacity and ability thinking beyond the measurement of income and money.
This is food security, community resilience, and sustainability at the level of the household.
It is timely and urgent that food security be underscored in various spheres of engagements and institutional setups to bring value in the policies and projects in government, community stewardship, and active citizenship.
The 2021 Global Hunger Index ranked the country 68th of 116 nations in terms of hunger levels. And this has the potential to get worse unless an intelligent planning and an agile implementation be put forth at the right time.
We have seen how climate change, global pandemic, production patterns, and geopolitical crises disrupting our food stability positions. It also proves our vulnerability to external shocks.
If we look at the inflation rates, we see a spike of 6.3% in August 2022 compared to 4.4% last year of the same month. Mindanao is the most significant contributor to this national inflation rate. This kind of inflation is cost-oriented due to higher fertilizer costs, high fuel costs, and weak peso-dollar exchange.
Region 9 posted the highest inflation rate at 9.1%, while the BARMM with the lowest inflation at 4.9%.
Our balance of trade is imperiled; the economy is bleeding owing to buying more imported products than the amount of exports, for food and other uses.
The country’s trade balance posted an annual growth rate of 11.4% as of July 2022, where 66.1% were imported, and 33.9% exported goods. This is indication that we are flooding our local markets with imported goods, and unconsciously killing our local industries.
We have to realize that we have to protect our local industries and boost domestic local production. But look, our national unemployment rate has significantly decreased from 7.2% in July 2022 to 5.2% this month, even under the pandemic.
This is again a mark of advantage. The employment sector did not significantly change amid the economic shocks.
While prices of goods spike up owing to the high import orientation of the economy, we also see the potential to overcast this frailty by supporting our employment sector. The huge employment sector is found in agriculture. Mindanao’s agriculture accounts for 6 in 10 employed individuals; this is the sector with high poverty rates.
Therefore, if we are to raise the status of agriculture and food sector, we address hunger, plug the leaks that erodes purchasing power, and stabilizes the nation amidst volatility of global market. If we improve local production, we create employment, and we achieve food security.
Adrian Tamayo is the head of the Public Relations Division of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA). He teaches economics at the Graduate School of the University of Mindanao and currently on a scholarship grant for a Master of Public Safety Administration (MPSA) at the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC).
