Inflation and food shortage

One of the main issues we have been facing alongside navigating life with COVID-19 in this new normal is the continued issue of inflation. As the cost of everything continues to go up and up, many Filipinos are struggling to make ends meet. Life is already highly unpredictable post-pandemic, and salaries have remained the same if not lower. There are so many who lost work, and adding higher prices exacerbates an already difficult situation.

And it’s all a domino effect too. As more people need to focus and hustle round the clock, there is less time to be mindful of health and safety protocols. A recent surge in cases could easily be attributed to more people surging into the streets and even to them chucking social distancing in the mad rush to make a living. It’s the age-old dilemma of health and wellness taking a backseat to earning enough to put food on the table at the end of the day.

What’s most frightening is that there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Prices continue to go up, and the peso hit an all-time low against the US dollar recently, which caused panic and concern among investors and the business sector. And rightfully so. We can’t just continue to hope things will improve. We need to take concrete steps to fight inflation and put foundations into place to improve over the next few months.

One of the issues that have been fanning the inflation flame is the ongoing food shortage in the country. We see it in the news daily – sugar, salt, and onion shortage. This highlights our current dependence on food importation and showcases the cost pressures pushing inflation.

And it’s not just the sugar, salt, and garlic we get from abroad, but also other commodities like rice, wheat, corn, and more. While this may have worked for a while as a short-term solution, the truth is it’s not sustainable. Especially after global prices surged, caused by environmental factors and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

We need to find ways to be more sustainable. That’s the only way we can battle inflation in the short and long term. We have to carve out a path forward that will be better for Filipinos and all businesses operating in the Philippines. But what does this mean for right now? It means re-assessing our agriculture and food policy priorities and taking steps to bolster and improve them.

Fortunately, agriculture is one of the government’s top priorities, alongside education, infrastructure, health, and social protection. We must give food production the attention it deserves because it’s not just families impacted by the food shortage – businesses and, by extension, jobs are too.

While funding hikes for agriculture are welcome, this needs to go beyond that. We must look more closely at how natural disasters also impact food production. Many point to climate change as one of the chief reasons we suffer food losses, and farmers have a hard time determining crop production.

We’ve seen it more and more recently. While farmers in Batanes and Benguet were told that lack of crop planning led to them being unable to sell the oversupply of garlic and cabbage in their provinces, the reality is that is just a tiny piece of the puzzle. While crop programming would be an excellent addition to the farming sector – and something the Department of Agriculture should teach at a grassroots level– the reality is that it goes far beyond just planning.

Contingencies must also be in place for things out of farmers’ control. Typhoons, flash floods, lack of infrastructure, and transportation challenges are all factors impacting the agriculture community. The Agriculture department should work closely with local governments to support farmers with the right tools and tech to bolster food production instead of looking to importation as a solution to our problems.

The country once had a strong agriculture industry, and we have the factors we need to get back to that again if we invest now and continuously invest. This isn’t a one-stop solution, but should be approached in terms of long-term sustainability. How we put food on our tables will impact every sector in the country, and if we can get this to a point where we can be more self-sufficient, everyone will benefit.