AAE 10 ASSIGNMENT #1

Melvin Andrei Alfiler (2024-15015) Submitted to Asst. Prof. Julieta Delos Reyes, PhD.
Section C 10 Sept 2024

Sowing Expertise and Harvesting Solutions:

Synergizing Sustenance and Sustainability in the Philippines
Through Agricultural Economics

The ways in which the world is evolving are beyond what we can imagine as a society. Many of
our issues seem to be connected to one another and get worse over time. Things like unchecked growth in
the population, economic instability, and climate change are happening in ways that are quite concerning.
Given the challenges that humanity faces today, specialists in our field must come up with innovative
solutions to lessen, if not completely eradicate, the harsh circumstances that exist in the world today.
These methods must be dynamic, multifaceted, and integrative. The days of using bodies of knowledge as
a monolith to produce answers that could be applied to different facets of a given issue are long gone.
Therefore, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches are essential to developing contemporary,
long-lasting solutions.

In order to address issues pertaining to, but not limited to, food and nutrition security, economic
development, sustainable business practices, pro-people financing, etc.—the majority of which are crucial
issues in the world of the twenty-first century—a multidisciplinary and holistic approach is encouraged in
the study of agricultural economics. Agricultural economics allows ideas and concepts from several,
seemingly unrelated subjects to be integrated because it doesn't stick to rigid divisions between academic
fields. Nevertheless, by combining various sets of knowledge, complex issues can be effectively
addressed. For developing countries like the Philippines, where complex issue webs impede
socioeconomic advancement, this strategy serves as a catalyst. To say the least, Philippine agriculture is
subject to several challenges. From the hurdles in farm productivity to issues in markets, there are a
myriad of hardships to both producers and consumers of agricultural commodities.

Food waste and food insecurity are the two main, highly contradictory problems that negatively
impact the Philippine agriculture industry. How could a food-insecure nation even dare waste it away?
Both problems are present in the same country, whether we like it or not. The Food and Agriculture
Organization (2023) reports that the proportion of moderate-to-severe food insecurity in the Philippines is
44.7%, the highest in Southeast Asia. However, according to a Department of Agriculture (2024) wastage
accounts for almost 30% of the nation's agricultural produce losses. Similarly, the UN Environment
Program (2024) states that 2.95 million tonnes of food gets wasted yearly in the Philippines, 26 kilograms
per capita. These occurrences do not exist in isolation to each other, no matter how paradoxical it may
seem. Due to this, the involvement of various fields under agricultural economics is only appropriate
given the complexity of these problems.

Beginning with the fundamentals of economics, effective resource management to reduce costs
and maximize returns and benefits is essential to addressing food insecurity and waste. Farm management
and production economics are essential to achieving this objective. A proper distribution of farm
resources will assist in lowering the expenses that farm workers incur. The transportation of food in the
 AAE 10 ASSIGNMENT #1
Melvin Andrei Alfiler (2024-15015) Submitted to Asst. Prof. Julieta Delos Reyes, PhD.
Section C 10 Sept 2024

most efficient manner is prioritized with agricultural marketing, so the food pipeline doesn't stop with
production. When marketing products, perishability and demand must be considered to prevent waste that
negatively impacts agricultural facilities. Due to overproduction and perishability, farmers frequently have
to sell their goods for a cheap price in order to break even. All of these areas are critical to lowering food
waste and enhancing the productivity of agricultural workers. Achieving food security is just as vital as
controlling food waste and the costs associated with agricultural production. The study of food and
nutrition economics provides knowledge concerning ways to achieve true food and nutrition security for a
populace that is both productive and healthy. It is crucial to know what products to make in order to
maintain a healthy diet for individuals, particularly with economic constraints. Finally, the study of
natural resource economics explores the most effective ways to use resources like water, land, and other
biological resources that are necessary for producing food. These natural resources are limited and not
only available for the production of food, after all. Therefore, it's critical to understand how much we
need to put to use in order to have an adequate supply of food.

Indeed, the study and expertise on agricultural economics opens to a wide array of possibilities
and areas of exploration. By the integration of expertise from different fields, agricultural economists
cultivate appropriate responses to the ever-complex challenges faced not just by the agricultural sector,
but also society at large. As we aim for a sustainable world, may we remember that how and what we
produce and consume today will determine what will be left for the future generations and that our vision
shall not be bound in the current times but also for the years to come.

References:
Food Waste Index Report 2024. (n.d.). UNEP - UN Environment Programme.
https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/food-waste-index-report-2024

Romero, A. (2024, January 16). DA: 30 percent of crops wasted due to poor logistics. Philstar.com.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/01/17/2326363/da-30-percent-
crops-wasted-due-poor-logistics/amp/

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023. (2023). In FAO; IFAD; UNICEF; WFP;
WHO; eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc3017en

DECLARATION ON THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

I, Melvin Andrei Alfiler, hereby declare upon my honor that I have used AI for grammar checking and
paraphrasing. While appropriate technology was utilized in the creation of this output, the content,
organization of ideas, and analysis of the cited literature are original and authentic to the student.