Is aquaculture the answer to food security?

"Food for every ones table and every homes"




From foresight - aquaculture in Malaysia


Aquaculture seems to be the answer to the growing food requirements of Malaysia.    The catch in the natural surroundings which amount to 1.4 billion kg of fish has resulted in overfishing.   While the population of Malaysia continues to grow, the production from regular fishing has been steady.

The answer would seem to be from aquaculture.

Deaths from malnutrition, rather from wars, ebola, and typhoon, and earthquake are no match to deaths from malnurition

"Food for every ones table and every homes"



Over 2,000 have died from Ebola, and thousands more have died from suicide bombings and armed conflicts.  But as WHO stats say, 12 people especially from Africa, die every minute from famine and malnutrition

This translates to 17, 280 deaths per day.  or 6, 307, 200 per year (Is this right)  This is a huge number.

This is a serious problem and therefore must be addressed by all nations and UNICEF and FAO of UN.

Arable land in the Philippines - have they been fully utilized?

"Food for every ones table and every homes"

From Trading Economics

Rizal Philippines



Total agricultural land in the Philippine is 111, 840 km.  Of that, 5.03 million hectares is arable land; the arable land as percentage of total land area is only 15% of the total land area.  Only 50% of the agricultural land is utilized.  That means to say, the agricultural land productivity is not being utilized.   (as per world bank)

In this case, the economics definition as wise of use of scarce resources does not apply to the Philippines because labor nor land is not scarce...

According to Phil stat the figure is as follows;

9.671 million is agricultural land;

4.936 is arable land;

4.225 million hectare is cropland (meaning to say only 50% of arable  land is fully utilized)

We had a record rice production in 2013 (as claimed by Sec Alcala)

Palay:	18.44 million metric tons
Corn:	7.38 million metric tons
Hog:	2.01 million metric tons
Chicken:	1.56 million metric tons
Number of Agricultural Farms: (2002)	4.82 million
Palay:	2.15 million
Corn:	1.46 million
Coconut:	2.60 million
Sugarcane:	0.17 million

In 2013, production of palay was 2.26 percent higher than the 2012 record. Corn production was down by 0.40 percent. Production of hog increased by 1.95 percent while that of chicken grew by 5.11 percent

Agricultural Employ

Location:	Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the West Philippine Sea, East of Vietnam
Area:	total: 300,000 square kilometers
	land: 298,170 square kilometers
	water: 1,830 square kilomters
Agricultural land area:	9.671 million hectares (2002 CAF)
arable land:	4.936 million hectares
permanent cropland:	4.225 million hectares
permanent meadows/pastures:	0.129 million hectares
forest land:	0.074 million hectares
other lands:	0.307 million hectares

Making deserts bloom - a feat by Jews at Negev desert

"Food for every ones table and every homes"

From CBN news



Rizal  Philippines  | September 18, 2014



As in US, about 500 families supply 60% of the food requirements of Jews, and exports 10% of the flowers for export market.  The Jews employing the latest in agricultural technology:  irrigation, use of greenhouses have been able to make deserts produce crops.   This  underlies the commitment to food security.

Some suggestions on how we can increase food production

"Food for every ones table and every homes"

We can increase food production through these simple suggestions:

1.  Urban gardening - plant food plants in empty plastic containers at your backyard, at your lanai or balcony or even rooftop even when you live in the city.

2.  The integrated farms -  You have food plants, livestock that produce meat, poultry and eggs.  The manure can provide methane that run generators or stoves.   You have fishponds to grow fish, take care of your effluents, and cool the farm, or have water for irrigation (rain fed irrigation)

3.  4 hectares in 1 hectare formula by Batanguenos

You have 1 hectare of land planted to :

     1 hectare of coconuts;

     1 hectare of coffee

     1 hectare of black pepper

     1 hectare of vegetables (string beans, okra, bitter gourd upo, etc.

Philippines exported $1.426 billion worth of fishery products - lags other ASEAN neighbors

"Food for every ones table and every homes"

Rizal Philippines   | September 15  2014



From UAP  Seafood and aquaculture exports

Philippines exported a total of $1.426 million worth of seafood products and most of these were from processed tuna worth $632.00

Despite being an archipelago and with large EEZ and coastline, ponds and brackish waters, the fisheries sector of the Philippines  underperforms and fisherfolks are among the poorest in the country?

Why is this so?

What is the scenario if we ran out of food? Food insecurity

"Food for every ones table and every homes"



From Rappler Food insecurity in the Philippines - 36% of the adult Filipinos are food insecure

What is food security?

The 1996 World Food Summit defined food security as the state “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”  (from Rappler

What is the state of food security in the Philippines?


"More than a quarter of Filipino adults (36%) claimed to be food insecure, while 23% of Filipino children said the same in the latest National Nutrition Survey (NNS) conducted in 2011."

Farmers Cooperative in Talavera Nueva Ecija shows the way in food security

Food on everybody's dining table.

Rizal Philippines |  September 15, 2014



Nagkakaisang Magsasaka  Agri PMPC

Nagkakaisang Magsasaka - an outstanding cooperative

From Philstar - NE fast becoming the rice hybrid capital of the Philippines

From Landbank - Nagkakaisang Magsasaka  wins first place in Gawad Pitak award, gets P500,000 in fixed asset prize.


The Nagkakaisang Magsasaka Primary Agricultural Multipurpose Cooperative  headed by Ricardo Buenaventura was featured in SNSK (Suwak na Suwak sa Kabuhayan) featured in Channel 2.

The feature was sponsored by Land Bank of the Philippines.

Food shortage and famine in Africa

More food is our security and future






From missionaries of Africa

From UN - warns of possible famine in Central African Republic;  needs more donors


Remember the "We are the World" song by Lionel Richie et al?  They were meant to raise money to buy food for Africa whose children are dying of malnutrition. Hence we became familiar with the word kwashiorkor.

More than ever, aside from Ebola and civil disorder, famine is an ever growing threat in Africa.  Lately, despite the bounty earned by Somalian pirates, there is famine in that country.  There is an estimate that about 200,000 children have died from malnutrition in that country.  There are millions more who are affected

What is our response?  What is FAO doing to increase food production in those countries or even the government?

Donations can help why not, but achieving long term self sufficiency in food must be worked out hard and fast

Millions have died from malnutrition in Africa (especially the sub Saharan desert countries)  Here are the quoted stats:

From Daily Maverick - Stats on famine and starvation in Africa

• 12 People said to die ‘of hunger’ every minute in Africa
• 6.7m People said to die ‘of hunger’ every year in Africa
• 396,011 People who died due to malnutrition in 2011, according to the WHO

This is alarming;  12 people dying every minute due to hunger?

Urban gardens is one of the answers to food security

More food is our security and future



Growing food in small spaces

From Ecohome guide

Survivalists advise that one of the important component of survival when there is a holocaust or civil disorder is to have backyard or rooftop, or even balcony gardens.  The canned food will not last long.  So there is a need to have your home grown food supply.


Backyard gardening

So in the Philippines what can you plant in your backyard, rooftop:



1.  Kangkong

2.  Talbos ng kamote

3.  tomatoes

4.  eggplant, okra

5.  lettuce

6.  onions

Mushroom growing - You Tube presentations

Growing mushroom at home

Securing our future through food production

From Wikihow - Growing Mushroom Indoors

From Mother Earth News - growing your own mushrooms





Mushroom grows without sunlight, and you can harvest up to 3x a day when it is a its height of productivity.  It can be grown from waste materials like hay, grass and other composting materials.

Mushroom is rich in protein and is tasty.  It has known medicinal value like: anti cancer properties and anti blood clotting action.

The famous Lucban Longganisa

From Pinoy Adventurista



There is the famous delicacy from Lucban Quezon, the home of the famous Pahiyas festival.  The Lucban longganisa.

At the K program of Korina Sanchez she featured the one who originally made this and now they are rich.  They have a big house and pigger to support this Lucban Longganisa business.  The owner married early, had a small store and eventually made this delicacy.  The longganisa were small and had achuete to make this yellowish.

Having more food sources like this assures food security

Boosting rice production with SL -8 rice variety

Securing tomorrow's food security through agri tech



SL 18 assures stable income for farmers through 250 to 300 cavans/hectare yield

Henry Lim Bon Liong head of the of the SL Agritech, and  Sterling Paper products bet the family fortune to produce high yield rice variety during former Pres Erap. The yield is 3x the yield of rice under Masagana 99.

When I met Henry Lim Bon Liong at Go Negosyo, he told us that net income per hectare was conservatively at P100t per hectare:   sales of P150t less P50t  farm inputs.   That would translate to P50t x planting season (at irrigated farm) = P300t per year.  If you have 10 hectares this would yield P3 million year.  He have achieved the dream of having millionaire farmers as in Korea and Japan (without having govt subsidy)



Dr. Frisco Malabanan and bountiful rice harvest.  There coul be 400 seeds per uhay

Why was there a spike in bawang (garlic) prices

Rizal  |  Philippines   | September 10, 2014

From GMA network news

From Rappler



The collusion between BPI in the granting of import permits of garlic and the cartel  caused the price of garlic to spike by as much as P350,00 per kg.   About 73% of garlic is imported and the balance comes from local production.

A single preferred group of 4 importers led by by trader  Lilian Cruz aka Leah Cruz cornered 75% of the garlic importation, reports DOJ (headed by another Lilian)  There used to be 4 importers.

DOJ recommends that the National Garlic Action team should be abolished instead

DA Secretary declares Philippines to be 96% self sufficient in rice 98% by the end of 2014

Rizal  Philippines    | September 10, 2014

Repost from Rappler

From Interaksyon





Sec Proceso Alcala said before the Congress budget hearing that Phil is now 96% self sufficient and hopes to achieve 98% by the end of 2014. He regrets that we were able to reach only 96% and not the goal of 100% in 2013 because of typhoon Yolanda.

The sufficiency rose from 82% to 96% in three years which is an achievement.  In 2014,  he said rice harvest was at 18 t million metric tons which is the highest so far.

Output of CLSU in Munoz City Nueva Ecija needs to be exploited

Rizal Philippines   | September 6, 2014






Several years back, I was invited by a  business partner who is member of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, upon invitation of then President GMA to find out business opportunities in  agriculture.  We thus visited CLSU and Phil Carabao Center and Philrice.  It was rather surprising that many of the work of CLSU have been unutilized by the rest of the agricultural community

We were surprised that a good % of what we consider beef are actually carabeef.  Our experience with carabao meat has been unpleasant because the law prescribes that only 13 year old or above carabaos can be slaughtered for meat.  But young carabaos from India are as good as any beef.

Welcome to the Food Security in the Philippines site

Two days ago, I was in Isabela, one of the places in the Philippines where there is plenty of rice.  However, people were lining up for cheaper NFA rice.

These are some issues to be tackled in this blog?

1.  Why should rice prices be high in a province that produces rice

2.  Why do we have to import rice when:

   MIndoro, Iloilo, Mindanao, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Cagayan, Isabela produce rice.  Well we have typhoons but nevertheless we can overcome this if we have planning of areas in the Phil that are not hit by typhoon