Availability Of Food

[Thomas]

The Ph is an island country and prone to natural disasters which creates a lot of problems for farmers and affects food self sufficiency in general. In addition to that in the recent years its economy has been shifting from purely agricultural to a more industrialized type which may undermine the agricultural sector even further, and create a need to import products. I would like to know in what areas of the country which food crops are grown; what the staple foods/dishes are; which are the cheapest, most available, which are most expensive/imported, which are lacking. What are the best regions in terms of availability of local foods? How does agriculture affect people's lives, environment in certain areas (contamination from pesticides, fertilizers, etc)? Finally, how does agriculture/range of produce there compare to: other asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia ; island countries in the Pacific such as New caledonia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Fiji?

Almost all farmers have TO SMALL land each, so they have full time work only during short periods. So more other work will NOT reduce the farm production.

(Compare: In Sweden 150 years ago it was a similar situation as it's in Phils now. ( =A big part work with farming, forestry and small scale fishing. Poor farmers because they have to small land each.) If comparing the PRODUCTION the 3 (?) % working with farming now, produce MORE than they did back when the majority were farmers... )

 

Season make some difference how easy it's to get some thing and what they cost. E g

the main harvests of mangos were recently, but there are producers manipulating the trees to try to get harvest during other time too.

Them who get rice harvest only once a year, harvest around October (depending of which weather zone they are in). Land, which don't have irrigation and watering possibility, are depending of the rain season, so they get only one harvest per year, while irrigated land can get 2, and in some places even 3, harvests per year.

 

There are some regional differences. E g:

the government have a program making parts of Bohol to a main rice producer by building damms and irrigation systems.

While at Cebu island I haven't found any rice farmer to buy direct from - yet   :)

East Visayas was much coconuts, but typhon Yolanda broke many palmtrees, so some less now.

 

Imported things as e g apples are expensive. Except rice, because that's regulated.

 

Many use to much chemicals, often without safety precoursions. Some pesticides are allowed in Phils, which aren't allowed in many countries.  Because of some mangos have had to much chemicals left when they are exported, some countries think of FORBID imports from the Philippines...  (I don't know if any country do it allready.)

BUT more and more Filipino farmers start growing ECOLOGICAL.

Such huge differences make it extra interesting to buy closer to the producer to get chance to know what they use.  In some places there are farmer cooperatives, some with own shops, and it's possible to go and ask farmers to buy direct from them, although some are so poor so they have sold their harvests (cheap) BEFORE they harvest...