According to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the Philippines has implemented “significant legal and policy measures” to address food security, along with some other peers in the Asia-Pacific.
An opinion piece by FAO Right to Food lead Juan Echanove noted that the Zero Hunger program unveiled in 2020 has implemented various interventions to protect the right to food, such as school feeding programs as well as initiatives to improve agricultural productivity and food supply chains. He also cited strides made by the country which include enacting the Community-Based Monitoring System Act, “to better track and address food insecurity and poverty at the local level.”
Based on a report by FAO, some 418 million people in Asia are undernourished and a significant number of children are suffering stunted growth due to chronic malnutrition.
Despite that, Echanove said that Asia, home to more than half of the world’s population, was playing a vital role in attaining global food security. “Promoting the right to food is essential for achieving broader social, economic, and political stability, particularly in regions like Asia and the Pacific, where food security and malnutrition remain pressing issues,” he said.
The issue of food security is something that most developing nations have to contend with, especially those that are densely populated and are somehow still unable to maximize the natural resources and technology to strengthen the agricultural sector which produces most of the country’s food, all the way to ensuring robust and resilient food supply chains that ensure minimal wastage and maximum efficiency. The Philippines has certainly been making strides in the right direction, but what is also certain is that we still have a long way to go.
Our government still needs focus more on this pressing issue, resisting the temptation to simply import to make up for any deficits, as it is a solution that is neither sustainable nor beneficial to the hundreds of thousands of families and lives who make up the agricultural sector, providing livelihood for them and food for the millions that consume their produce.*
