Introduction
InangLupa Roadmap Towards A New Philippine Agriculture 2020
The road map envisions a New Philippine Agriculture that shall have a major role in reducing poverty, achieving food and nutrition security, economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and upholding human dignity.
The role of agriculture in the Philippine economy has undergone dramatic changes through the decades. The agriculture sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and export is declining, consistent with the country’s transition to middle income status. It accounted for only an average of 11 percent of GDP in 2012, from 20 to 30 percent in the last two decades. Agriculture, however, remains the country’s backbone. It holds great promise for future growth and job creation. Currently, it employs 11.8 million people or 35.1 percent of the country’s total work force. Almost half of the population is dependent on this sector, mostly in the rural areas and among the poorest. One out of every five Filipino families (19.7%) was poor in 2012. About 7.5 percent were living in extreme poverty, with an estimated number of extremely poor families at 1.6 million. About 24 percent of families (4.3 million households) are hungry due to rising food prices. Among the causes of rural poverty are a decline in the productivity and profitability of farming, smaller farm sizes and unsustainable practices. This is partly due to poor people having little access to productive assets and business opportunities. They have few non-farm income-generating activities, and lack access to micro-finance services and affordable credit.
Philippine agriculture is confronted with several daunting and overwhelming environmental challenges. The country’s population will continue to grow unabated to 2020 and beyond, and shall require greater food supplies, whereas the scope for expansion of farm land and availability of freshwater hasnarrowed considerably. Thus, the country, like most of the rest of the developing world, faces the dauntingtask of producing more and more food from less and less arable land and irrigation water. Agriculture is the major consumer of water, accounting for 70-80 percent of water withdrawal. The degradation of environment is continuing, foremost of which are soil, water and biodiversity losses. Continuous cultivation with intensified agricultural production has resulted in nutrient depletion and land degradation through erosion. In the future, crop land will continue to expand not only to meet food demand but also to compensate for land degradation and unsustainable agricultural practices. Soil quality is the inherent capability of the soil to perform productive, environmental and habitat functions, and it contributes relatively more to agricultural productivity in low-input production systems. Hence, smallholder farming in resource-poor and harsh, marginal environments is the most affected by the continuous degradation of soil resources.
Agriculture is the most effected sector by climate change. The possibility for major disruption due to climatic changes is vast, as the country's ecosystems including forests, coastal and marine systems are highly vulnerable - externalities for agriculture and water resources. Among the highest in terms of exposure to natural hazards, the country experienced extreme weather events with the recent devastation brought by Typhoon Haiyan. Much more than crop yield and quality, climate change will have far-reaching consequences for agriculture that will disproportionately affect poor and marginalized groups who depend on the sector for their livelihoods and have a lower capacity to adapt. The effects of climate change are more likely to be felt in rainfed areas - home to the deepest pockets of poverty, where rainfed agriculture is the life line for the most small and marginal farmers. A climate-smart agriculture is not a practical need - it is a moral imperative, as climate change will make the challenge of feeding an estimated 150 million Filipinos by 2050 exceedingly difficult. With the impacts of climate change, existing water and land scarcity will be aggravated further. Producing food for the country's ever growing population to achieve food and nutrition security, and to improve rural livelihoods are challenges to be met today as well as in the near future.
Today, we are faced with the challenge to look closer on how we could describe and provide the specific details to the issues and concerns about people, communities, processes and development in agriculture. We ought to understand people, communities, their activities, interactions, relationships and patterns that constitute agriculture. Social movements, transformations, reforms and changes are the realities in shaping the agriculture sector. Lessons learned, experiences and observations done and changes that affect the people and their communities in the different processes and activities they participated must be shared together.
Aiming to radically reshape the agriculture sector, the roadmap envisions a New Philippine Agriculture 2020 to be advocated by the InangLupa Movement, a social movement that will push every sector of the society to rally behind the goals of reducing hunger and poverty, creating opportunity for income growth while ensuring environmental sustainability, particularly meeting the needs of resource-poor farmers and consumers, through a climate-smart agriculture. The InangLupa Roadmap is a plan for an urgent, collective and cohesive action towards poverty alleviation, food and nutrition security, and economic prosperity through a New Philippine Agriculture by 2020. Derived from the views and analyses articulated by scientist, farmers, entrepreneurs, non-government workers, people in the bureaucracy and other stakeholders who are volunteers of the InangLupa Movement, the roadmap has three major objectives, to: 1) reach a concensus on the important needs in transforming Philippine agriculture and the solutions required to satisfy those needs; 2) provide an inclusive mechanism to achieve the identified objectives; and 3) provide a common framework to plan and coordinate actions for development impact.
The multiple goals of poverty reduction, food security and nutrition security, improved livelihoods, and climate-smart agriculture, and social development cannot be achieved without a holistic approach that expands production and broadens markets, hand in hand with empowering people to move out of poverty and preserving the sources of pride in Filipino culture. At the same time, through appropriate institutional mechanisms, soil, water and crop limitations will be addressed with appropriate policy interventions and strengthened institutions.
The role of agriculture in the Philippine economy has undergone dramatic changes through the decades. The agriculture sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and export is declining, consistent with the country’s transition to middle income status. It accounted for only an average of 11 percent of GDP in 2012, from 20 to 30 percent in the last two decades. Agriculture, however, remains the country’s backbone. It holds great promise for future growth and job creation. Currently, it employs 11.8 million people or 35.1 percent of the country’s total work force. Almost half of the population is dependent on this sector, mostly in the rural areas and among the poorest. One out of every five Filipino families (19.7%) was poor in 2012. About 7.5 percent were living in extreme poverty, with an estimated number of extremely poor families at 1.6 million. About 24 percent of families (4.3 million households) are hungry due to rising food prices. Among the causes of rural poverty are a decline in the productivity and profitability of farming, smaller farm sizes and unsustainable practices. This is partly due to poor people having little access to productive assets and business opportunities. They have few non-farm income-generating activities, and lack access to micro-finance services and affordable credit.
Philippine agriculture is confronted with several daunting and overwhelming environmental challenges. The country’s population will continue to grow unabated to 2020 and beyond, and shall require greater food supplies, whereas the scope for expansion of farm land and availability of freshwater hasnarrowed considerably. Thus, the country, like most of the rest of the developing world, faces the dauntingtask of producing more and more food from less and less arable land and irrigation water. Agriculture is the major consumer of water, accounting for 70-80 percent of water withdrawal. The degradation of environment is continuing, foremost of which are soil, water and biodiversity losses. Continuous cultivation with intensified agricultural production has resulted in nutrient depletion and land degradation through erosion. In the future, crop land will continue to expand not only to meet food demand but also to compensate for land degradation and unsustainable agricultural practices. Soil quality is the inherent capability of the soil to perform productive, environmental and habitat functions, and it contributes relatively more to agricultural productivity in low-input production systems. Hence, smallholder farming in resource-poor and harsh, marginal environments is the most affected by the continuous degradation of soil resources.
Agriculture is the most effected sector by climate change. The possibility for major disruption due to climatic changes is vast, as the country's ecosystems including forests, coastal and marine systems are highly vulnerable - externalities for agriculture and water resources. Among the highest in terms of exposure to natural hazards, the country experienced extreme weather events with the recent devastation brought by Typhoon Haiyan. Much more than crop yield and quality, climate change will have far-reaching consequences for agriculture that will disproportionately affect poor and marginalized groups who depend on the sector for their livelihoods and have a lower capacity to adapt. The effects of climate change are more likely to be felt in rainfed areas - home to the deepest pockets of poverty, where rainfed agriculture is the life line for the most small and marginal farmers. A climate-smart agriculture is not a practical need - it is a moral imperative, as climate change will make the challenge of feeding an estimated 150 million Filipinos by 2050 exceedingly difficult. With the impacts of climate change, existing water and land scarcity will be aggravated further. Producing food for the country's ever growing population to achieve food and nutrition security, and to improve rural livelihoods are challenges to be met today as well as in the near future.
Today, we are faced with the challenge to look closer on how we could describe and provide the specific details to the issues and concerns about people, communities, processes and development in agriculture. We ought to understand people, communities, their activities, interactions, relationships and patterns that constitute agriculture. Social movements, transformations, reforms and changes are the realities in shaping the agriculture sector. Lessons learned, experiences and observations done and changes that affect the people and their communities in the different processes and activities they participated must be shared together.
Aiming to radically reshape the agriculture sector, the roadmap envisions a New Philippine Agriculture 2020 to be advocated by the InangLupa Movement, a social movement that will push every sector of the society to rally behind the goals of reducing hunger and poverty, creating opportunity for income growth while ensuring environmental sustainability, particularly meeting the needs of resource-poor farmers and consumers, through a climate-smart agriculture. The InangLupa Roadmap is a plan for an urgent, collective and cohesive action towards poverty alleviation, food and nutrition security, and economic prosperity through a New Philippine Agriculture by 2020. Derived from the views and analyses articulated by scientist, farmers, entrepreneurs, non-government workers, people in the bureaucracy and other stakeholders who are volunteers of the InangLupa Movement, the roadmap has three major objectives, to: 1) reach a concensus on the important needs in transforming Philippine agriculture and the solutions required to satisfy those needs; 2) provide an inclusive mechanism to achieve the identified objectives; and 3) provide a common framework to plan and coordinate actions for development impact.
The multiple goals of poverty reduction, food security and nutrition security, improved livelihoods, and climate-smart agriculture, and social development cannot be achieved without a holistic approach that expands production and broadens markets, hand in hand with empowering people to move out of poverty and preserving the sources of pride in Filipino culture. At the same time, through appropriate institutional mechanisms, soil, water and crop limitations will be addressed with appropriate policy interventions and strengthened institutions.