It is Ironic that Farmers are the ones feeding the nation yet they cannot feed themselves. You don't see from the farmer's eyes the excitement of reaping the fruit of four months of hard labor. Their Excitement turned into worry, worrying of just breaking even or even selling the harvest at a loss. Farmers have all the reasons to worry for the farm gate price of fresh palay is currently at 12 to 14 pesos per kilogram compared to 19 to 21 pesos per kilogram same season last year.

With P12 as the average production cost of palay, most farmers find it hard to recoup their losses, pay their debts and find the wherewithal for another planting cycle. Thus the tariffication law, which is supposed to make Philippine agriculture more competitive and sustainable in the long run, is for now being seen as one more affliction battering the Filipino farmer and contributing to a worrying trend: the mass exodus of such farmers from their fields into the cities, where many end up drafted into dehumanizing minimum-pay menial work.

This means a lot to the country's food basket. The local rice industry employs 2.1 million farmers, who supply 90 to 95 percent of the country’s rice requirements and who will replace their dwindling number?

Supporting farmers and keeping farming alive is an act of survival: The Philippines remains an agricultural country, and on the much-burdened shoulders of our dwindling farmer population rests the food security and well-being of 108 million Filipinos.