diminishing agricultural lands in dgte: its implication to food security and adequate nutrition

(written for a friend's high school sister's oration)

I thought I have seen every aspect of Dumaguete. It’s unhurried lifestyle. It’s gentle people. The sprawling universities. The intelligent conversations. The occasional festival. Really, what more is there?

But around every corner of a Barangay, among occupied houses in subdivisions, nestled within the city’s booming economics, dotting unusual areas - are agricultural lands, harboring their very important role: that of sustaining the food industry of the city.

I was so naïve! Here I am, living in Dumaguete City since the day I was born, and here I was, indifferent to this noblest of all existing things!

When I hear the word agriculture, I remember farming - the oldest and proudest of all professions.

I always take for granted the existence of fruits and vegetables in the market. I always shrug off the constant complains of my mom on how the prices of fruits and vegetables are absurd. If you think about it though, where did these fruits come from? These sacks of rice? I mean, these are just taken from plants! Plants aren’t the most difficult things in the world to take care of, right?

There was this one time I walked along the city and came across a fruit stand and asked where the mangoes were from. She said from Guimaras. No wonder they’re expensive!

How come we have to import fruits from other places? What about those from our local producers? The answer lies teetering on the thin line between the good and the bad.

The good thing about Dumaguete right now is its booming BPO industry, generating thousands upon thousands of job opportunities. This is definitely something we should be proud of. Yet, the bad thing comes just as quick as the developments. More people are pouring into the city, requiring more space to live in, crowding the identifiably small city! The repercussion of all of these is that more lands – agricultural and otherwise – are converted into residential areas just so as to address the increase in population.

And what gives way? Our agricultural industry. Even before the start of the call center phenomenon, our agricultural industry has been dwindling due to the constant inflow of imported alternative goods. Local farmers are now fighting for their share of the market. These alternative goods also do not deliver the necessary nutrition we need, unlike natural goods! Adequate nutrition therefore is much an issue as the constant decline of agricultural practice in the city.

Locally produced goods are the staple source of food for the common man in the city. And what with the increase in prices, and the decline in produce promulgating, food security becomes a problem at the end of the day.

What we need to do, as residents of this city, is to lobby for the proper management of the agricultural industry, and the proper control of development.

Now don’t get me wrong, development is indeed welcome! But it needs to be put on a leash, so to speak, so as not to run amok and devastate the city in the long run.

Perhaps I might be to forward on this issue. But I cannot for the life of me, stand and see our local agricultural industry disappear entirely, just because of some things we can ultimately control.