The Philippines: Agriculture around the South China Sea

The Philippines is a mid-sized archipelago nation composed of over 7.000 islands located in the Asia Pacific region. A member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines is located east of mainland Asia and borders the South China Sea. The country has a total territory of 300.000 square kilometers, which is somewhat larger than Arizona. Geographically, the Philippines has more than 36.000 kilometers of coastline and its islands are mountainous. Similarly, the Philippines has a total population of almost 103 million citizens, of which some 13 million live in the capital city of Manila. However, the majority of the Philippine population, over 55%, lives in a rural setting as opposed to an urban one. Currently, the Philippines’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) is of approximately US$700 billion and its national economy has experienced positive economic growth upwards of 5.0% in recent years. The Philippine national economy is divided into 10% agriculture, 31% manufacturing, and 59% services. Yet, the agriculture industry utilizes about 41% of the national territory, while another 26% is forested. Likewise, the agricultural industry in the Philippines employs some 29% of the national labor force, while manufacturing employs about 16% and services employ another 55%.

In terms of natural resources, the Philippines has timber, petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, salt, and copper. Within manufacturing, the national industry is focused on electronics, garments, footwear, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, wood products, food processing, petroleum refining, and fishing. Meanwhile, the country’s agricultural industry has as main products sugarcane, coconuts, rice, corn, bananas, cassava, pineapples, mangoes, pork, eggs, beef, and fish. In terms of trade, the Philippines belongs to ASEAN’s Common Market, which brings together ten national economies in the region. Furthermore, the Philippines, as part of ASEAN, is a driving force behind the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) project, which seeks to unite ASEAN’s market with China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Currently, the Philippines’ main trade partners are China, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, Singapore, and South Korea, amongst others. This article explores the status of nutrition and grain production in the Philippines.

The Philippines: Agriculture around the South China Sea

In the Philippines, unfortunately, almost 14 million people suffer from undernourishment. Likewise, in recent years, the average per capita protein intake of animal origin in the country has been of 25 grams daily. Meanwhile, cereals, roots, and tubers represent about 59% of the food energy intake in the Philippines. Simultaneously, the land distribution within the country has evolved throughout the last half century. In 1961, permanent pastures and meadows in the Philippines covered 812.000 hectares, while arable land totaled more than 4.9 million hectares, and permanent crops accounted for some 2 million hectares. By 2014, permanent pastures and meadows in the country accounted for 1.5 million hectares, while arable land represented some 5.6 million hectares, and permanent crops accounted for almost 5.4 million hectares.

Finally, the domestic cereals market in the Philippines has transformed substantially throughout the last several decades. In 1961, the country devoted some 5.2 million hectares of land to the production of cereals and produced well over 5.1 million metric tons annually. Meanwhile, in 2014, the Philippines devoted approximately 7.4 million hectares of land to cereals production and yielded 27 million metric tons.

(Read more about Exclusive Economic Zones in the 21st Century)