Philippine Agriculture, Food Security, and APEC

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Food policy analysts and government policymakers have different views on food security. Those who decide for agriculture in less developed countries equate food security with self-sufficiency and look at food, particularly food grains, as political commodities. Meanwhile, food policy analysts put premium on income in gauging food security based on the claim that poverty is the main cause of food insecurity. The latter view accords well with internationally accepted definition of food security that evolved through time in conjunction with the changing world food situation. Along these lines, policy should do for agriculture what is appropriate for the whole economy and not for the sector alone because agriculture is not the end but rather a means to an end. This volume, a copublication with the Philippine APEC Study Center Network (PASCN), advocates key reforms in the agriculture sector that are consistent with the emerging global economic environment and argues for a more outward orientation and the eventual diversification of agriculture referred to in this volume as availability of and economic access to food.