Runaway population saddles PH
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sun, 04 Aug 2019 08:55:04 +0000
The country is saddled by a runaway population while the agricultural lands for food crops are getting smaller, President Duterte said during a recent agrarian reform event.
The President expressed concern about the country’s growing population and shrinking farmlands while discussing the need to “reconfigure” the lands to sustain the people’s food requirements.
“The problem in the Philippines is we are beset with, I said, so many – a runaway population. We are now 110, 108 (million) they say,” Duterte said during the turnover of land certificates to agrarian reform beneficiaries in Davao City.
“And if we rely only on the available lands being tilled now without improving on the technology, on the yield, we will be forever importing rice from the East ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries,” he added.
The President noted that “big corporations” were taking over agricultural lands that are being used to plant cash crops instead of food crops.
“All over Mindanao, particularly, ‘yung mga prime lands natin noon and the historical land geared for rice planting and corn are getting to be smaller and smaller and smaller every day. The big corporations are taking over. And what they are into is agriculture but it is for cash crop. Meaning to say, they’re planting…what they are planting is, they sell. That’s why it’s called for cash,” he said.
The government must address the “dilemma” about food production to catch up with the country’s growing population, according to the President.
“We have not been able to catch up with the area where we can plant. The produce would be food crop. So there’s a dilemma there somewhere and one day government has to reconfigure to have enough land to sustain the needs of the Filipino people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Duterte is willing to listen to the recommendation of the Department of Health and other medical experts on the proposed revival of the Dengvaxia program in the country.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the President wanted health authorities to study the possible re-use of the anti-dengue vaccine, and will wait for the results of such review before making a decision.
“He said it requires study because the experts are not yet sure about the vaccine. He said he will listen to the recommendation of the Secretary of Health, he will listen to the doctors,” Panelo said.
“It must undergo a thorough study. It is important to have a solution to the current problem of dengue,” he added. (Genalyn Kabiling)