IBON Executive Director on the Department of Agriculture’s National Food Security Summit

May 18, 2021

Food import dependency, agricultural trade deficits, hunger and rural poverty have worsened under the Duterte administration.

Its Food Security Summit will be a sham if it doesn’t start by admitting that its neoliberal policies are to blame most of all.

Rice tariffication will displace rice farmers, worsen food insecurity–IBON

November 22, 2018

Rice tariffication and uncontrolled rice imports will displace rice farmers and worsen food insecurity without solving the problem of expensive rice, research group IBON said. The government is using high inflation to justify rice sector liberalization according to long-standing demands of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and big foreign agricultural exporters. Domestic agriculture should be […]

Further imperiling Philippine rice

October 29, 2018

The government’s accelerated move to impose rice tariffs and lift quantitative restrictions on rice imports is touted to ease inflation. It comes with a heavy price in the long-term, however, as it puts in peril the livelihood of millions of Filipino rice farmers. Amid runaway inflation triggered by its regressive tax reform program, the Duterte […]

PH Economy Duterteriorating | Crisis in Agriculture

October 16, 2018

#WorldHungerDay #UpholdPeopleEconomics Agricultural growth today falls far behind estimated population growth of 1.6% in 2018 and is well below the 7-decade historical average of 3.0% since 1948. The agricultural slowdown is also reflected in massive job losses in the sector. The Duterte administration only gives lip service to improving agricultural productivity amid this severe crisis […]

Govt anti-inflation measures inadequate and anti-agriculture

October 2, 2018

Research group IBON said that the Duterte administration’s anti-inflation measures are reckless stop-gap measures that will ironically harm domestic agriculture, displace farmers and fisherfolk, and worsen food insecurity. The group also said that the government should use its vast authority to take much more decisive steps to reduce inflation. President Duterte issued Administrative Order (AO) […]

Poor Filipino families worst hit by rising July 2018 inflation

August 8, 2018

Research group IBON said that faster inflation largely due to rising food prices hits poor households the worst. The group also said that the Duterte administration’s proposal to increase food imports is short-sighted, and that the best defense against rising food prices and high inflation is to increase domestic food supply through long-term solutions that […]

Food producers poorer, hungry three years after Yolanda

December 10, 2016

  Despite about Php144 billion in funds, the Philippine government has barely delivered on the planned rehabilitation and reconstruction in Yolanda affected areas. The people are more vulnerable, poorer and hungry with uncertain livelihoods and security of tenure.  For most farming communities in Eastern Visayas, production has not recovered. “Many farmers are only able to […]

Philippines Can Also Learn from Cuba’s Food Security Path

July 27, 2016

IBON Networks | Green Action PH | Aside from running an efficient health care system and achieving genuinely universal health coverage, the Philippines can also learn from how Cuba achieved food security with the practice of sustainable agriculture. Cuba’s food security strategy involved shifting from conventional chemical farming in its large-scale industrial farms to organic […]