Philippines

The government must upgrade food systems by digitizing and dignifying the agriculture sector in order to ensure food security in the country, especially during this time of the pandemic, a renowned agripreneur said. Cherrie Atilano, founding farmer, president and chief executive officer of Agrea Agricultural Systems International Inc., on Friday spoke at the Institute of Corporate… Read more

The city government, through its agricultural productivity operations office (APOO), has started involving the youth sector in local agriculture and fishery to help ensure food security in the region. Since its introduction in August this year, the APOO’s Bayanihan sa Agrikultura para sa Kabatan-onan, Kaumahan, ug Katubigan (BAKA) has trained 20 participants from different barangays in the… Read more

Food insecurity continues to be a pressing issue in the Philippines. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 59 million Filipinos are food-insecure today. This means about half of the country’s population is suffering from a moderate to severe lack of consistent access to food.  Elizabeth Hernandez, head of external affairs and sustainability of… Read more

In light of the government’s thrust to promote urban farming, the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday unveiled the Urban Agri Hydro Hub Learning Center at The Pop Up Katipunan in Quezon City. “This launching serves as our first step in reaching our goal. Today, we established our country’s first urban farming hydroponic research and training facility to overcome food shortages and… Read more

When many parts of the country, including some of the biggest markets, went into lockdown in March 2020 to contain the coronavirus outbreak, farmers, even the ones outside the quarantine zone, had to dump their crops by the roadside for lack of a way to bring the produce to where the buyers were. Later on, the community pantry movement sprang up, primarily as a means of providing free food to… Read more

Strengthening the agricultural sector, a robust disaster management plan and continuous skills training for farmworkers are just some of the key strategies in ensuring food security in the Philippines amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Kelly Bird said Tuesday. Bird made these recommendations during the virtual “Discussion on Strategies for Food Security… Read more

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has aggressively stepped up its efforts to ensure stable and affordable food supply as the country continues to fight a raging pandemic. For the agriculture sector, 2020 was one of the most challenging years. As nations grappled with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, the Philippines faced massive challenges on top of the… Read more

Four leading Filipino economists recommend that structural reforms are needed to remedy the plight of Philippine agri-fishery sector and reduce poverty among farmers and fishers, during the first day of the 2021 Food Security Summit organized by the Department of Agriculture (DA). For one, reforms must be made on the continued bias against agriculture in government budgetary allocation… Read more

The Department of Agriculture (DA)- Caraga together with the DA-Agricultural Training Institute-13 and DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute-Agusan gears up for the implementation of the Unified School-on-the-Air Program on Smart Rice Agriculture (SOA-SRA) in the region through a weeklong orientation with LGU partners regionwide. Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar's Eight Paradigms enunciated… Read more

The typical dinner plate in 2050 should be diverse and mostly plant-based, with less rice and highly processed grains, according to academician Eufemio T. Rasco, Jr., chair of the Agricultural Sciences Division of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Philippines. To ensure that the Philippines is adequately fed 30 years down the road, NAST envisions a system, dubbed “Feeding… Read more