As a country visited by numerous storms and experiencing recurring El Niño events, it is imperative that the Philippines take concrete steps to make its agriculture sector truly resilient.
And as I finalize this column, the Department of Agriculture reported that damage to agriculture caused by the enhanced southwest monsoon, or “habagat,” and tropical cyclones Luis and Maymay has exceeded P1 billion.
While P1 billion seems like a small drop in an economy nearing $30 trillion ($487 billion) in monetary terms as of 2025, we cannot ignore the hardships farmers and fishers who were affected by the recent weather disturbances. The affected food producers might even sink into poverty if they will not be given adequate government assistance to recover.
And how many more storms will visit the country for the remainder of the year?
Then there’s the looming extreme or “super” El Niño that will surely wreak havoc on the country’s agriculture sector if we are not prepared. Just look at how the past El Niño events affected the country’s agriculture sector.
On top of climate challenges, the country’s growing population is putting pressure on local food production. And don’t tell me the best solution to addressing local food production shortfalls is to import, because as we have witnessed in the past months, global food production can be disrupted by geopolitical tension and trade issues.
So, let me declare that agriculture — both locally and globally — should be transformed into truly resilient food production systems that can withstand climate challenges and global disruptions, and ensure affordable and nutritious food for a growing population.
What agriculture needs is a “Resilient Revolution.”
Transforming the agriculture sector or food systems to become truly resilient requires adopting regenerative farming practices, precision farming technology, and climate-smart technologies. And this transformation should be supported by the policy and finance with a bias to support smallholders and local food production.
Let me emphasize that regenerative agriculture is the cornerstone or foundation of a resilient food production system.
Two resources come into mind in transforming agriculture into a regenerative system — soil and water. Without those two, it would be completely impossible to grow food for a growing local and global population.
Hence, regenerative agriculture should focus on efficient utilization and conservation of soil and water resources. And sad to say, among the causes of soil and water resource degradation is excessive chemical use in farming and monocropping.
Much has been said in recent months on the need to adopt the balanced fertilization strategy (BFS) given the constraints in global fertilizer supply and elevated prices caused by the Middle East conflict.
By all means, let us mainstream BFS to lessen the country’s dependence on imported inorganic fertilizer.
As for soil resources, let us give incentives and support to farmers to shift from monocropping to multicropping or crop diversification.
In the United States, the country’s Department of Agriculture launched in December 2025 the Regenerative Pilot Program with a $700-million funding that has attracted 26,000 applicants. Our government should make a similar move.
When it comes to technological application, precision is the key to attaining a resilient food production system. This means that technological application in agriculture should not solely be for the sake of “modernization.”
Currently at the forefront of making agriculture production more precise is digitalization and AI, and drones. By deploying these technologies properly, higher yields with lesser water and chemical utilization can be attained.
Early warning systems utilizing digital technology and AI must also be deployed to inform farmers of climate disturbances, most especially the extreme weather events.
Higher yields can also be attained by utilizing crop varieties that thrive under extreme weather conditions, and still provide handsome yields. This will need intensive research for development (R4D) on the part of agricultural, scientific, and higher education institutions.
Of equal importance is the dispersal of matured digital- and AI-based technologies for agriculture, and climate-resilient plant/seed varieties.
Finally, policy and financing should align with funding and investments to support sustainable practices, with a bias for smallholders.
And getting policy and financing aligned to make resiliency take root in agriculture requires responsive and visionary public institutions that can also foster private sector cooperation.
Let us face the fact that while government can mobilize massive funding to make our food production system truly resilient, the money available may not be enough. Hence, there is an urgent need to also attract investments and funding from the private sector to pursue resilient agriculture.
Private sector companies may also have better access to matured technologies for resilient agriculture, especially those that have large food production systems in the country or internationally.
Ensuring food sovereigntyAmong the ultimate goals of a resilient agriculture sector is food sovereignty, resulting in a more sustainable level of food security.
Food sovereignty is also about the right of our country to define its own policies to utilize land, soil, and other resources to produce food.
It is also about relying less on other countries for our food supply.
Food sovereignty should make a country’s agriculture sector less vulnerable to global food shocks, international market disruptions, and geopolitical tensions.
While we definitely need keep our market open to food imports as part of our agreement with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and trading partners, we must avoid sourcing one key agricultural commodity from a single source. Also, we must strive to increase the production of key commodities — such as rice and corn — to lessen our dependence on imports.
Hence, the “Resilient Revolution” I advocate for our agriculture sector is also about ensuring that food nutritious food is readily available to all Filipinos despite the challenges of climate change, and global issues.
So, let us be all part of this “Resilient Revolution.”
