A REPORT recently published by the World Bank noted that the country’s agriculture sector has exhibited resilience amid the coronavirus pandemic. It grew “by 1.6 percent in the second quarter of the year” and the only sector that thrived during the period.
While this is good news for the sector, it is crucial to implement reforms in agriculture to be able to maintain these gains and withstand the adverse impacts of future shocks and hazards. Innovating the country’s agriculture sector is necessary to ensure food security amid the COVID-19 pandemic and to improve the sector’s resilience to other risks.
We, we could bounce back in the new normal through countryside development and agricultural resilience. The agriculture sector has a significant role in sustaining food production and in improving economic recovery during crises like the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Mindanao is known for its strong agriculture-based economy, with a third of the region’s land area devoted to agricultural activities. Agriculture could be our backbone as we speed up efforts in rebuilding Mindanao’s – and the country’s – economy post-pandemic.
Based on the data of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization in the Philippines, the region “supplies over 40 percent of the country’s food requirements and contributes more than 30 percent to national food trade”.
Given Mindanao’s strength on agricultural production, the region will play a key role in sustaining food productivity and availability as the government continues to undertake measures to mitigate the negative impacts of the pandemic.
Government agencies, local government units, and the private sector, most especially in Mindanao, should focus their efforts on the region’s agriculture and fisheries sectors to counteract the economic slowdown brought by the coronavirus outbreak.
