The Philippines, An Agricultural Country

The country can not sustain its population without the agricultural sector being sutained by the government. The point is, we can not sustain our economy if we neglect its prime source - the agriculture.

The Philippines was once the center of rice production in Asia. The International Rice Research Institute was established purposely to yield the country's rice production. It was a success at first and other Asian countries believed in what the Filipinos can do. We have the talent, we have the will and we believe in what we can do. We were once the no. 1 exporter of rice in Southeast Asia, but that was long ago.

Today, real estate is a good business. More big land owners turned their agricultural lands into subdivisions and industrial areas. Population growth adds more pressure to the demand of residential lands plus the increase of food consumptions. This is a very alarming reality. Agricultural production decreases resulting to country's "importation of rice" either from Japan, Thailand or the United States. The irony now lies to the fact that the Philippines was once the mentor of Thailand on yielding rice production, but the student itself is now the one sustaining the needs of its mentor. We can read in the news: " Thailand to export rice to Philippines"; "Japan to export rice to Philippines as emergency relief"; "USA confirms rice exports to Philippines", and other related news.

The latest report from the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Agricultural Statistics showed agriculture grew by 1.55 percent in the third quarter of 2009, but this represented a 52-percent decline from the 3.23-percent growth posted by the sector in the same period of 2008. Palay production reached 3.52 million metric tons in the July-September period from 3.47 million tons in the third quarter of 2008.

I believe there is the need by the government to take care of our agricultural lands and enact more laws for the welfare of the agricultural sector. There must be clear definitions when and only when an agricultural land can be turned into residential with the power of the government to determine as such without violation on any individual's right, such as right on property and ownership. The government may apply the provisions in Section 2, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution if properly interpreted for the welfare of the general populace.