Jul

y 21,2009

Arable Lands Should Not Be Converted into Residential Lots

By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte, Philippines-It’s good that Vice-President Noli de

Castro himself has made a statement during his speech before the group of farmers
in Bulacan that arable lands (public and private) should not be converted into
real state or subdivision. In other way of saying it, he will not allow arable
lands or agricultural lands for a real state conversion. But the strength of his
speech regarding the conservation of arable lands in the country will only remain
until his term and that of the Arroyo administration in 2010, unless he will run
for the seat of the Presidency and win.
The fate of our agricultural lands in the country will always be under the
control of whoever is the President, unless a law on the strict prohibition of
arable land conversion into subdivision or real state will be enacted.
A bitter lesson has been served to all of us now-those in the government and
private sector and the millions of ordinary Filipinos: that conversion of
agricultural lands into residential or housing projects will surely reduced the
areas needed for the planting of vast hectarages of rice,corn,fruits,vegetables
rootcrops,legumes and other edible plants for human consumption. And this is of
course the logical reason that with the growing number of population in the
Philippines, the more our concerned govt. officials and owners of vast hectares of
land should be more serious in enforcing the strict prohibition for this kind of
land conversion.
On the other hand, talking on basic needs, it covers food, shelter, clothing
and education.However, when we talk on what will be our priorities, mostly we
would say that it is food. WE can bear with little clothes and lack of education.
But when it comes to food, all of us-rich and poor-are always in need of it
everyday. If we fail to eat even one day, we feel weak, lack of concentration on
mental activities, could hardly sleep (hunger will always prevail over
sleepiness), sluggish and other bad feelings of an empty stomach.. If the
condition in the alleged “shortage of rice” will continue and its price will also
continue to rise, many poor people who are jobless and landless will be forced to
steal in order to eat. When food shortage will become the main issue, it will
always have a heavy brunt of blame to the President’s political policies and
priorities.
WE hope that Vice-President de Castro, one of the popular media personalities
in the past, will put more meat to his recent speech in Bulacan in front of the
farmers by advising PGMA to enjoin Congress to enact a law now that will strictly
prohibit the conversion of arable lands (public and private) into a real state or
housing projects whoever is the President of the Republic of the Philippines. This
means that any duly- elected President who will be residing in Malacañang Palace
can neither annul it, thwart it nor circumvent it by any subtle means.
WE need more agricultural lands for our food requirements so that we will not
be buying rice and other agricultural products anymore to our neighboring
countries and become self-sufficient in foods. Producing rice and other food
products ourselves would be more resourcefully productive than relying on
importation by spending millions and millions of pesos, which can be turned as our
savings for other important
government projects and services.
On the other hand, there might also be other countries of the world where
like the Philippines, some of their agricultural lands were converted into real
state for subdivisions or housing projects. If there are countries that also
consider rice as its staple food, then it would be proper for them also to enact
laws that will prohibit the conversion of their agricultural lands(arable lands)
into real state or housing projects. Likewise, they should also devote vast
hectarages of lands to planting rice, corn, fruits, vegetables, rootcrops, legumes
and other edible plants for the people’s consumption. With active monitoring and
good caring of the plants’ development, boosted by the proper application of
organic fertilizer and pest control, the possibility of a bountiful harvest of all
these crops every reaping season will be the fruition, which will make every
country become self-sufficient in food supplies. Effective applications of modern
methods and techniques in the development of agriculture and fisheries sectors
must be maintained and sustained by concerned public officials, farmers and the
fishermen. Periodic seminars relative to agriculture and aquatic/marine
development must also be conducted on an annual basis that will provide added
knowledge in these fields of endeavor. Modern methods in the preservation of
freshness of consumable food products for many months to avoid staleness and
spoils must also be pursued, then implemented and maintained.
However, in countries where there are inherently few hectarages of arable
lands with plenty of people to feed, food importation is the inevitable recourse.
But for those countries that have achieved self-sufficient in foods, importation
would then become unnecessary. Exportation of agricultural produce just for the
sake of gain must be shunned, if by so doing, the exporting country’s inhabitants
will go hungry and wanting more.
Each government of nations worldwide must first feed its respective peoples
contentedly so that there will be no malnourished children and adults. Only if
there’s a strong manifestation of agricultural foods surplus will a particular
agricultural country dare to export its extra food stocks for profits.
(Copyright 2008 by Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)