The Philippines’ decaying agriculture industry

NeP-C Ledesma
Aug 31, 2018 · 3 min read

I’m guilty. I’m blind. I’m unaware. I do not care. Barraged by my own adversities, vanities, fanaticisms, goals, I forget about the bigger picture. Like the great dread of our plastic-impeded, corruption-riddled nation, a sector of our production is almost nearing its outmode, and that is Agriculture.

In the 90s, Agriculture has contributed up to 44% to our country’s GDP, but today, it only accounts to 9.65%. We are losing tens of thousands of farmers every year. The age range of the current farmers in the country are 57–59 years old, respectively. The Department of Agriculture predicts that if this problem lingers, the Philippines would only depend on imports, or worse, be in a food crisis, in 2050 (or maybe in 20 years).

The youth is more interested in living in main cities, trying to live the urban dream, despite the chaotic and uncertainty of it. Technology, advertising, glamour, parties, “higher salaries” are very tempting to them. There’s always this notion that it’s better to be “urbanized”. Children of farmers prefer to work in restaurants, fast food chains or malls. Also, farmers only get 10–15,000PHP per harvest because of the middleman.

Climate change has also disrupted the once peaceful farming communities. Because of bad weather almost every year round, farmers are barely even able to produce food for themselves. This is most especially apparent in Luzon and Visayas. Another factor is many farmlands are being transformed to urban or residential areas by land developers.

This is a huge concern for everyone. A small country as ours cannot control the oil price hike. Apart from that, the evat and customs duties of imports has increased enormously, so what will happen if we cannot sustain ourselves with food? Many of us, even some people in the middle class, will suffer.

Thankfully, a group of tech enthusiasts and the Dept. of Agriculture have curated a series of events that can address these needs. TechUp Pilipinas, a group of tech companies recently organized an Agriculture summit and Hackathon, a contest in which several university students create an app that will solve agricultural problems that would be of help to the farmers. The winners of the got cash prizes and are able to pitch their technology-based solutions to investors.

This was the very first Tech-Up and event in Mindanao and they are targeting the region because it is the region with the least typhoon occurrences. The event made a lot of people, including me, aware of what really is going on in the agriculture sector.

The agriculture industry’s decline is very alarming, given that we live in a country where there is ample resources, and it’s truly ironic that what used to make us attractive to foreign geopoliticians, our natural resources, is now becoming almost archaic. This is not to say that I favor foreign conquerors, but I just wanna point out how this industry turned into a 360-degree angle.

I’m now thinking that maybe we should go back to the early civilization. My boyfriend suggested that it’s better to invest in lands instead of condominiums or travel, that we should learn how to plant. Maybe it’s also a great idea to learn how to ferment; if ever a crisis happens. What do you think?

Sources of info: TechUp Pilipinas press conference and Philstar.

NeP-C Ledesma

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I am a 20-something entrepreneur writing about anything, from lifestyle nitty-gritties to pop culture commentaries, and everything in between (and beyond).

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