A Cavan of Predicaments

and Plights of Agricultural

Centers in Ilocos Norte
By James Brian Ventura

We can all recall that one fateful day back in 2013, when the
Philippines, a third-world country; which also happens to be our
homeland, has been named by the World Bank as one of South
East Asia’s fast-growing economies, dubbing it as “The Rising
Tiger”. Widespread notions of pride were broadcasted throughout
media outlets, both local and international, but the truth behind it
hasn’t always been what the press says it to be.

While I initially thought that our country’s a statistical fluctuation

of 6.8 percent in its economic performance would bring great
benefits, from 2013 up until now, the effect is surprisingly
underwhelming especially to the region of Ilocos. Needless to say,
the barren conditions of the region’s Agricultural sector pose a
great predicament. In the present, many constituents of Ilocos
Norte can still be found in the deepest, impervious ravines of
borderline poverty, amounting to a total of 230,000 out of 593,
081 of the region’s total population. The praises that the country
is receiving are considered oblivious at this point and as a matter
of fact, despairs of an urgency that needs to be addressed with
immediate interventions.
In this post-modern age that we live in, countless advancements
in agricultural production have been introduced to other deve-
loping countries and unfortunately, our own agricultural sector
lags behind with its rudimentary framework. The need for a more
sustainable configuration of farming is very much apparent and it
has since pressured the central government of Ilocos Norte to
devise a contingency plan to mitigate further losses in net profit
and production.

Ilocos Norte used to be considered as the country’s melting pot of

cultural and gastronomical wonders, but today, it is struggling to
preserve its ancient tradition of agriculture at the hands of today’s
environmental and political conditions. Adding insult to the injury
is the recent approval of the Rice Tarrification Law, authored by
Senator Cynthia Villar last August 2019. The looming threat of
imported produce is expected to reduce the productivity of farms
throughout the region. And the gradual onset of climate change
only makes matters worse.

It seems the region’s prior developments of the Laoag

International Airport and Currimao Seaport have been overlooked
by the government as an opportunity to reinstate the agricultural
sector as the locus of the region’s tourism to ensure its consti-
tuents’ survival and revival of the once-prominent fervor it used
to have. If the government realizes that oversight, the biggest
question would be this: What would be the appropriate solution
now?