TACLOBAN CITY – Food security is connected to the implementation of proper land use, so said Akbayan party-list Representative Kaka Bag-ao in an interview during her recent visit to the region for the public inquiry for land use policy that was held in Silago, Southern Leyte.
The passage of a land use bill is among the priority bill of the Aquino administration and was part of his first Sate of the Nation Address which he seeks for Congress to pass.
“Dito sa Pilipinas, if what is the issue of the day that is what we try to resolve, like even if we need to protect a land because it is an agricultural area, this is set aside because it is not the priority of the moment but the issue being discussed on that moment and they wanted to resolve,” Bagan Bag-ao explained.
“If we are to check all land use plan in the country there are those that have no protection on land devoted for food production,” Bag-ao added.
Bag-ao cited that a number of areas in the country that were classified as agricultural land had already been converted into commercial or industrial land and some were converted into subdivisions.
Most of lands affected are rice fields converted into subdivisions while other are being mined, according to Bag-ao.
“Because of this we will notice that our agricultural land areas are now getting smaller,” Bag-ao stressed.
With this problem, Bag-ao said that this will affect the food security and sufficiency program of the government for it will affect the food production performance of farmers in the country.
“How can we achieve our target goal of rice and corn sufficiency by 2013 if we have this kind of problem,” she added.
Bag-ao added that aside from the aspect of food security, proper land use will also ensure the protection of our natural resources like water sheds, rivers and lakes that are also source of food of the people.
“If we can’t protect them, then what will happen to the human race? Our survival depends on the things that we get from our lands,” she stressed. (Roel Amazona)
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