7107 islands' food potential.

7107 is the number of islands that makes the Philippines. The Philippines is part of South East Asia and is known for exporting rice throughout the world. The Philippines has a land area of 30 million hectares. Only 13 million hectares of it is used for agriculture. I will now discuss problems that make the Philippines' agricultural state not contributing to the food crisis. I am not degrading my own country. I am showing a solution to a major crisis by solving these problems and to show you that this a hidden gem ready to be discovered if the problems are solved.

1. Food Hoarding. Especially Rice, hoarders in the Philippines store all the food so they could sell it later for a much more higher price. While this may seem to be "profitable" for the country, in some cases (correct me if I am wrong), they do not know the magnitude of hoarding.

During 2008 , the price for a sack of rice rose to almost 50 % its normal price. From 300+ Pesos ($6) to a whopping 500+ pesos ($10) and may be still rising. Due to this, the economy goes down even though the economy could have used those resources to be sold around the world to boost the economy and no food crisis would have happened.

Due to hoarding, the Philippines is instead importing food that they already produce to answer demand! The Philippines is one of the world's biggest rice exporters and now they ask for rice to be imported?! Yes, this is true, at one time the food crisis was so bad that the government sold below-the-line (low quality) food to the people.

2. If you have ever been to the Philippines. It is covered in green ALL YEAR ROUND this is due for only having dry and wet weather in the Philippines. The Philippines is perfect for agriculture in fact, One of the islands, namely Cebu, exports mangoes around the world.

To explain the problem, in my opinion, the economy is instead following the global trend, modernizing the country. For me, this is not the right path for my country, why? The agricultural potential is there!

Food, Clothing and Shelter are the basics of survival. Modernizing can help the economy but if you think about it , the Philippines has a lot of fertile land to use for agriculture! Agriculture can be categorized as Food. Now we all know, that everyone needs food. Instead of focusing on modernization, the Philippines should use their land for agriculture.

Now you may be thinking, 30 million hectares is not that much but it is. According to the land capability, 78.31% of the country's land is suitable for agriculture. The Philippines is a developing country and if that country focuses on their strongest attribute which is agriculture, they would boost their economy and could answer the world's needs as well.

You might be thinking why I am discussing this topic. One is that , as a developing country, it looks for a way to fit the needs of the world. As you are reading this blog, farmers are learning to plant organics. Yes, organics.

Don't take my word on this , see for it yourself. This country is a hidden gem. Do not focus on the media discussing about the crisis as we can really see that if we are being resourceful we can see countries that have untouched land that could be used to help our demand and different crisis.

As I close this topic, I might not be accurate for I am still on the verge of being an adult but thinking of ways of being resourceful of the world's needs is very much needed during this time. Now look at the picture above, do you think the Banawe Rice Terraces ( one of the wonders of the world) was carved for no reason by our ancestors?

Sources:

http://www.agnet.org/situationer/philippines.html
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/26284886/Phillipines-Organic-Agriculture