Food Shortage in the Philippines?

What happened to:

Rice supply- before we are the leading producer of rice and the center of studies in Rice propagation. Now, we are not just underdog but we lack supply even unable to sustain our own needs.

Suggestion: A police power to order moratorium in converting ricelands to subdivisions. Fund the IRRI and strengthen the cultivation of rice in our fields, for the next 5 to 10 years. Enhance hybrid rice. Search for unused, unirrigated rice paddies and irrigate them. For the next 10 years, no ricefield shall be sold for land development other than planting rice or crops. IF we can make use of more than 1,000 ha of rice fields, we can at least sustain our supply. What happened to National Irrigation? IRRI?

Philippines as an Agricultural country- we should stop dreaming to be like the US. Let us admit it, Food is the new gold mine for economies of the world. We have lands, we have the seas...if we can use all these resources as food production machineries. We can approximate the development in other major agricultural countries. We can increase our exports and lower the
level of inflation and trade deficit.

Agricultural jobs- with the effort of the government, they can spearhead the creation of food companies tilling lands, post-harvest facilities, raw food production factories and others. We should encourage agricultural jobs than call centers, I think. The capital may come from the billions and billions of pesos given as budget to our Congressmen, which unwisely used, in short wasted in nonsense waiting sheds and non-stop repainting of already painted streetwalls. Hay life!

Sustainable Environment- Stricter, harsher penalty for environmental crimes. What happened to the oil spill in Guimaras? What happened to the mining contamination in the waters of Mindoro? to the trash in Bulacan water systems? We should do something.

Farm-to-Market roads- Let us admit this. We have so much produce like eggplants, onions, corn and various fruits from all provinces in Mindanao, Northern Luzon and the Visayas but none of them reach Manila. If we have facilities to cater to the delivery of these foods all over the country the prices will go down, because supply is up.

Suggestion: Pursue the toll-free passage of delivery trucks for food, encourage ships and airlines to deliver food with the incentive of giving the company tax exemption or tax cuts. Organize the local food councils to gather their produce and distribute their excess to other markets in all cities and provinces. Delivery might be done by army vehicles. And what will they do with their ships, planes and loaders? Fill them with ammunition? Why not use them for food, anway there is no war...but there is war on hunger and food security. They should be part.

Ambitious? Well, in some sense yes. But with the growing population, with the growing need for food. We need all suggestions to combat this threat. We do not want Filipinos having so much food around and yet still hungry, wouldn't that be too pitiful to see?