WHY DO FARMERS
GO HUNGRY?
Farmers feed our nation. So why can’t they feed themselves?
roots of the problem
CHEMICAL FARMING AND MONOCROPPING
Market demand has created the need for farmers to specialize in one crop, with higher input costs and lower profits. One cropping in one hectare yields $500 in net income on average. Even if farmers are able to eke out 3 croppings in a year, this gives them an annual income of $1,500 or just $3/day.
Synthetic fertilizes and pesticides, marketed extensively to increase harvest quality and yield, strip the soil of essential microorganisms and kill vegetation. Pesticides destroy the naturally sustainable cycle and low-cost structure of farming and makes farmers dependent on chemical companies for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides which increase their input cost substantially. This has not only reduced income but also reduced them to only have one type of food in their inventory or on their plate: rice. Turning farmers into monocroppers has resulted in making both their soil and families malnourished.
With the rising cost of imported food, land lease, seeds and chemicals, food has become inaccessible for many rural communities across the Philippines.
spiral of hunger & poverty
Soil is dead
due to fertilzers
Low harvest yield
Need more fertilizer to boost harvest. But chemicals render the seeds useless: requiring farmers to buy seeds for each harvest (increasing their cost).
Monocropping requires farmers to buy food to feed their families.
But the cost of food exceeds their income.
Kids are malnourished
Farmers have to look for work / borrow money to feed family
Kids are forced to drop out of school to work and help the family
scale of the problem
FOOD SECURITY
1 in 5
people are hungry in the Philippines or 21.1% of Filipinos (2020 average)
1/3
of Filipinos who are hungry are in rural areas
HEALTH
1 out of 3
Filipino kids is malnourished and many are from rural areas
1.5 million
Filipino kids go a whole day without eating
ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
75%
of poor people live in rural areas
$3/day
average income of a farmer
$3.5/day
average income of fisherfolk
EDUCATION
1 in 3
children drop out before age 10 to support their families
30%
of high school students drop out in Luzon
50%
of high school students drop out in Visayas and Mindanao
FIND OUT HOW COVID
CHALLENGED US TO INNOVATE OUR HUNGER SOLUTION
Hunger is expected to kill more than Covid.
With the pandemic and extreme lockdowns, with no alternative sources of income, hunger and malnutrition in the Philippines are rising at crisis levels. Two billion people around the world are suffering from food insecurity and do not have access to nutritious, healthy food. See why Feed Back is more critical than ever.
