Family farming to boost Phl food production

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – Family farming can considerably contribute to food production in the country in the face of its burgeoning population.

This is the primary message that a national forum is expected to convey when it convenes starting today (Sept. 20-21) in this municipality.

The two-day assembly of selected farmers from various parts of the country will be organized by the MoCA RLearning Center based in Padre Garcia in Batangas.

It will be hosted by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), whose main building on the campus of the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) is the venue of the conference.

Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, who has been championing the cause of the country’s small farmers, will be the forum’s keynote speaker.

The assembly will tackle the country’s pressing agriculture issues, among them:

• The role of family farms in rural development in this decade of family farming

• Agriculture as a livelihood option

• Marrying professional career and family farming • Millennials in agriculture • Importance of celebrating our farmer heroes

Zeroing in on the issue “Understanding Small-Scale Family Farming,” the conference organizers and sponsors stressed that the Philippines has 5.56 million farms/holdings covering 7.19 million hectares.

This means that the average size of a farm in the Philippines, mostly small-scale family farms, is 1.29 hectares.