Gov’t explores new ways to ensure food security

The government is reaching out to global partners amid efforts to tap non-traditional means, including information and communications technology (ICT), to ramp up food production and ensure adequate supply.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala on Friday expressed commitment to work with Grow Asia, which debuted last Wednesday during the World Economic Forum sessions.

The WEF describes Grow Asia as a new platform that aims to help strengthen the agricultural sector in Southeast Asia.

“We stand ready to collaborate with WEF-Grow Asia and be an active partner in crafting and pushing for new, out-of-the-box solutions to help farmers and fishers across the region produce enough food for all despite climate change and other challenges,” Alcala said.

According to WEF, Grow Asia—convened in partnership with the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)—is meant to “support market-based scalable solutions with measurable positive impacts on inclusive and sustainable agricultural growth, especially focusing on smallholder farmer development and environmental sustainability of agriculture.”

“While we are pleased with the achievement of record production in our food staples in the last three years, it is our paramount concern that farmers and fishers benefit from this growth,” Alcala said.

Further, the agriculture chief said the Philippines was ready to share with the rest of the world promising experiences related to innovative financing methods such as an automated teller machine-based farm credit facility.

Alcala was referring to the “Sikat Saka” program, which the Department of Agriculture and Land Bank of the Philippines are implementing in support of the government’s food staples self-sufficiency program.

Sikat Saka is meant to help smallholding rice farmers—particularly members of irrigators’ associations— attain better yield with a loan program bundled with related support such as technical assistance, administrative services, market assurance and insurance.