Agropolis

FOOD security is a major global concern. Obtaining food security means a nation’s population has access to sufficient nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and live healthy and active lives. Ensuring food security and nutrition is so crucial that the United Nations identified “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture” as Goal 2 in its Sustainable Development Goals. These have never been more crucial. However, there are numerous challenges that restrain nations from fully achieving it, like global warming, the rapid rise of populations, water scarcity, loss of agricultural land and diseases, among others.

Here in the Philippines, more than 9.5 million hectares of our total land area is for agriculture. However, frequent natural calamities have made it difficult for us to achieve food security. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council recently reported that Typhoon “Ambo” caused P185.5 million worth of damage to agriculture. In 2018, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the Philippines 70th among 113 countries in the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). We were in the lower half of the index with a score of 47.3. In addition to natural disasters other factors such as low farm incomes, inadequate support for agricultural research and development, conversion of agricultural lands, water scarcity, inefficient logistics and supply chains, and fewer people choosing agriculture-related jobs have made our food production systems and supplies vulnerable.

According to the World Food Program, “Many Filipinos suffer from lack of food or poor diets despite rising food availability because of inadequate access to food due to high poverty and low income…” As our urban population continues to rise, so will the demand for sustainable and resilient food supply systems. By 2050, our nation’s population is forecast to reach 146 million. Will our food supply be enough to sustain us and future generations come 2050?

To address this major challenge our country is facing, we at Palafox Associates and Palafox Architecture Group strongly believe in promoting and strengthening agropolitan development nationwide. Why not bring food sources closer to where people live? Why not empower each barangay, municipality, city and province in the Philippines to be self-sufficient with urban farming? An agropolis is an ideal approach to solve food insecurity and malnutrition because it integrates agricultural farms as a vital component of urban and regional development. The word agropolis is derived from “agros” meaning farm and “polis” meaning city. In other countries, the agropolitan approach is known as urban agriculture.

Even though Singapore only has 1 percent of its land allocated for food production, it was No. 1 in the 2019 GFSI with an overall score of 87.4. According to food security experts, the prevalence of community gardens serve as valuable alternative food sources when disruptions to food supplies occur, such as the current global pandemic. According to Singapore’s National Parks Board, the nationwide gardening initiative has produced more than 1,500 community gardens with more than 1 million native plants that are present in public and private housing estates, schools, corporate premise and rooftops, among others. Advanced research and technology have also allowed Singapore to efficiently grow quality produce with less waste of natural resources and without harmful pesticides. It is likewise very encouraging to see how local food production has brought people together from all walks of life, and they now share the same goal to strengthen urban farming.

A good example of how the local government responded to address extreme poverty and hyperinflation of food prices and how agriculture can be successfully included in urban development can be found in Rosario, Argentina. In December 2001, 60 percent of the city’s population lived below the poverty line. Today, it is one of Argentina’s most prosperous cities. Key initiatives that transformed Rosario’s poor conditions were: low-income urban areas were supported to achieve small-scale, self-production of fresh food; and promotion of vegetable gardening in the poorest parts of the city. The local government had a clear vision of making urban farming a permanent activity in the city. A farmers’ market was opened within six months since the initiative began. The first stage of the program was so successful that it resulted in helping producers earn up to $150 per month, and it supported 10,000 low-income families.

For our country to successfully adapt agropolitan development and create a thriving industry, local governments must develop land use plans and policies that favor balancing development with nature, and financial resources and expertise must be invested to intensify human capital and technology. To reduce the parasitic relationship between the cities and the farms, let us have a more symbiotic integration of urban, suburban and rural farms.

There is so much benefit to be made from cultivating an agropolis. It can empower low-income households to establish livelihoods. Families can eat healthier by growing their own nutritious vegetables and make a profit from it. Carbon emissions can be reduced because fresh produce no longer need to be transported at an average of 2,000 kilometers from provincial farms to markets. The presence of farms in the metropolis can help neutralize price surges and shortages of fresh produce during natural calamities in the provinces. Developing urban food

systems provides green spaces that offer relief from pollution, urban heat and other deteriorating conditions of the urban environment.

In designing affordable housing, we at Palafox have incorporated green walls where households can plant crops such as eggplant, tomato, cucumber, talbosngkamote (camote tops leaves) and ampalaya ( bitter gourd), among others. We have also helped develop agropolitan plans in India, Vietnam, Pampanga and Metro Davao, and we were involved in the master planning of leisure farms like The Leisure Farms in Lemery, Batangas; Ponderosa Leisure Farms in Silang, Cavite; and Tierra Maria Estates in Lipa, Batangas, among others.

With the government’s plans to implement the “BalikProbinsya” program and a strong and sustainable agropolitan approach to development, our nation can revive the agricultural sector. We can optimize our diverse ecologies and unlock the immense agricultural and agri-industrial potential that awaits in our rich regions.