Why empowering local farmers is an important step towards food security

Before we can begin the process of gradually becoming food secure, we must first determine what is preventing us from always having food available to everyone.

Many residents are ignorant of the critical role that farmers play in feeding society, making it difficult for them to support those who provide food or recognize the importance of agriculture in the country's development.

One solution is to help foster food security in the country is to empower local farmers to live a self-sufficient and good quality of life, as well as to encourage the youth to pursue careers in agriculture so that as time goes on, more people will realize that agriculture is an industry that has long sustained us and our needs.

Food security in the next years will be impossible to attain unless stakeholders from all industries collaborate to find a long-term solution.

Within the roadmap are five strategies composed of farm consolidation, modernization, industrialization, export promotion, and infrastructure development. These in turn will be enabled through proper budgeting and investing in local farmers and fishers, legislative support, and roadmap development.

No matter what our status is in society, food is a necessity that we should secure for ourselves and others as well. And since we’re stakeholders in the agriculture industry because we eat food, we should play our part in fostering food security in the Philippines by treating our farmers with respect and dignity. After all, they’re the ones who put food on our tables.