Can we feed ourselves?

If we are talking about the very basic task of feeding our people, for all intents and purposes, we have lost the first three years of BBM’s administration. BBM knew agriculture was going to be his most urgent problem.

That’s why he took on the agriculture portfolio himself.

But it didn’t work. The availability and the affordability of food, essentially rice, became a primary factor in the high inflation rate that hobbled the first years of BBM’s watch. The retail prices of sugar, onions and tomatoes also zoomed up.

The BSP Governor wrote an unusual open letter to BBM saying “we wish to highlight the crucial role of non-monetary measures in helping to bring inflation back to a target-consistent path. Other supply-side measures will be equally important, including… efforts to boost the productivity of the agriculture sector.”

Agriculture needed a full time point man and BBM thought Francis Tiu Laurel Jr., the successful fisheries entrepreneur, would be a good fit. So did we. Agriculture needed fresh leadership and maybe a private sector perspective would help.

Unfortunately, after much waiting, Sec Laurel produced more bluster and excuses than actual positive performance. He failed to control the rice trading cartel which included the rice importers so that retail prices were at record highs.

Laurel brought in a platoon of undersecretaries, probably the most any Cabinet department has, but no deliverables. He talked about a grand program of building agricultural infrastructure but only a trading center in Pangasinan has so far been inaugurated.

In the meantime, the latest Stratbase-SWS March 15-20, 2025 National Survey found that 27.2 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger – being hungry and not having anything to eat – at least once in the past three months.

The March 2025 hunger figure was six points above the 21.2 percent in February 2025, and the highest since the record high 30.7 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020. It is seven points above the 2024 annual hunger average of 20.2 percent.

So, can we feed ourselves? The latest data indicates our population is growing at around 1.48 percent. On the other hand, the output of the agriculture, forestry and fishing  sector fell by 2.2 percent to P1.725 trillion in 2024, the lowest in eight years, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The mouths we must feed are increasing while the amount of food we are growing to feed them is declining. We have been importing rice, chicken, beef, vegetables and even galunggong.

Our farmers are also getting old, with the average age in the 60s. And their children and grandchildren do not want to be farmers. Our current farmers are also caught in the cycle of ayuda dependency that’s hard to break so we can’t expect much from them.

We have been talking of modernizing agriculture for decades but only dealers in fertilizers and hand tractors and other farm equipment flourish. Some of the biggest scams were at the expense of the agriculture budget as experienced during the time of former president Arroyo.

Someone in my Viber group commented that the future of agriculture depends on attracting a new generation of tech-savvy individuals with fresh mindsets.

In fact, calling him a farmer is not enough. He is more of an agri-technology operator as we shift to modern, data-driven farming. It was recommended that policy should reflect this generational divide: support the old farmers with dignity, but invest in a new wave of agricultural entrepreneurs who can and will transform farming.

I have written a number of times that we need to attract the corporate sector to help grow our food.

San Miguel is putting up 12 poultry mega plants nationwide at a cost of $1.2 billion. Last October, San Miguel inaugurated the country’s largest poultry facility in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur.

SMC’s Ramon Ang aims to reduce if not eliminate having to import chickens while providing a ready market for farmers who grow corn and other ingredients for chicken feed.

The other local taipan who has seen the need to invest in growing our food is Metro Pacific’s Manuel V. Pangilinan. He first invested in the dairy industry after realizing that we import nearly 100 percent of our dairy requirements. The target is to initially produce 10 million liters of milk in a P2-billion integrated dairy facility.

MVP explains why he is investing in agriculture: “the vision behind these investments is an agriculturally independent Philippines. We aim to build a nation capable of feeding all of its people.”

Metro Pacific teamed up with an Israeli group with the technology to revolutionize vegetable farming. At its 3.5-hectare Metro Pacific Fresh Farms greenhouse facility – the largest of its kind in the country – in San Rafael, Bulacan, MPFF will produce up to 500 metric tons of fresh produce annually.

“Despite 47 percent of the country’s land being agricultural, problems like low output, high input costs, outdated irrigation systems and a lack of post-harvest facilities hinder production,” says Jovy Hernandez, president and CEO of Metro Pacific Agro Ventures.

MPFF’s Israeli partner has expertise in sustainable food production, even in Israel’s harsh desert climate. They are able to grow produce more efficiently, using 90 percent less water and land, while producing five times the yield of traditional farming.

Additionally, MPFF’s ability to produce vegetables consistently helps stabilize prices through supply and demand dynamics, shielding businesses and consumers from the impact of price fluctuations and inflation.

That’s the good news from the two taipans who consistently invest in sectors whose products and services the country needs the most.

Other big entrepreneurs should venture beyond real estate, corporate banking and retail distribution. They should invest in growing food. Unfortunately, some top performers at the stock exchange are marketing junk food that do not provide nutrition like chips and instant noodles. Our fast-growing population must be fed properly.

Boo Chanco’s email address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on X @boochanco