Why are Filipinos hungry?

IN this week’s i Report Feast and Famine feature at pcij.org, Ernesto Ordoñez tries to answer the nagging question: "Why are Filipinos Hungry?"

A former undersecretary of agriculture and trade and industry, and former chair and Cabinet secretary for Presidential Flagship Programs and Projects, Ordoñez puts forth three possible reasons for the growing hunger among Filipinos: 

1. Food production may not be keeping up with our growing population. There simply is not enough food.
2. By the time the food produced at the farm level gets to the consumer, food prices are too high. Many cannot buy at these high retail prices.
3. Some cannot purchase the food they need because they have too little income or what income they have for food has largely been eaten up by inflation.

Ordoñez, who now chairs Agriwatch, a private sector initiative, also suggests ways to solve the problem of hunger. He says:

"(A)griculture policy, together with the corresponding agriculture programs, must address all three areas identified earlier: food production, supply chain management, and food affordability through more employment and less inflation."

In the end, he acknowledges that nothing less than good governance is the real solution to solving hunger. But he emphasizes the need for the public to become involved, saying that:

"(C)rucial to this governance is private sector participation through the invigoration of the legally mandated agriculture and fisheries councils at the national and local levels."

Read on at pcij.org.