Rethinking Food Futures in Western Visayas

Farmers across Western Visayas are feeling the strain.

As harvests shrink, rainfall patterns shift, and costs remain high, many are asking what the future of farming looks like, and whether the region’s food systems are built to withstand the next drought, disease outbreak, or economic shock.

The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority reveal a region marked by uneven fortunes and growing vulnerabilities.

Palay production, the bedrock of our food system, declined by 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2025. Rainfed rice areas shrank sharply, pulling total harvests down.

And once again, Iloilo carried most of the weight, producing more than half of the region’s palay and corn, and dominating livestock and poultry inventories.

But beneath this dominance lies a structural risk we can no longer ignore.

When one province holds the lion’s share of agricultural output, any climate disruption, disease outbreak, or input price shock it suffers will reverberate across the entire region. Iloilo’s 14.9 percent drop in harvested rice area (the largest among all provinces) is a signal flare.

We must ask: Is our food system too centralized to be resilient?

Capiz, once a steady contributor, is showing signs of stress. Antique and Guimaras, meanwhile, posted quiet but notable gains. Antique increased its cattle and gamefowl output. Guimaras saw a remarkable 31.6 percent rise in harvested corn area, mostly white corn, a crop with both nutritional and cultural value. These aren’t just outliers. They are clues to a more balanced future.

A future where Antique’s upland livestock systems, Guimaras’ niche crops, and Aklan’s poultry resilience complement, not depend on, Iloilo’s agricultural engine.

To get there, Western Visayas must urgently rethink its food and farm priorities.

This starts with convening a regional food and agriculture summit, not just of technocrats and national agencies, but of farmers’ groups, fisherfolk, nutrition advocates, local governments, irrigation managers, and the private sector. Food security must no longer be discussed in silos. It must be planned in systems.

At the heart of this rethinking must be ecological balance, nutritional goals, and income resilience.

It is no longer enough to talk about tons per hectare or heads per livestock inventory. We must talk about calories per capita, dietary diversity, soil fertility, water security, and net incomes per farmer household.

We already have projects that point us in the right direction. The Jalaur River Multipurpose Project (JRMP II) – the long-delayed yet now advancing mega dam in Calinog, Iloilo – promises year-round irrigation for more than 31,000 hectares of farmland, most of them outside Iloilo’s traditional lowland rice zones. If implemented with equity and foresight, Jalaur can become a regional equalizer, allowing other provinces to expand their food production sustainably and with climate buffers.

But infrastructure alone is not the answer.

Land use must be rationalized to prioritize food-producing zones. Irrigation governance must be inclusive and responsive, especially to upland and rainfed communities long left out of planning. And our farm-to-market roads must not only connect harvests to buyers, but also enable smaller provinces to participate more actively in food trade and distribution.

This is not just a technical challenge. It is a political and moral one.

We must redistribute capacity, not just resources. Antique and Guimaras need more than praise. They need tools, cold storage, veterinary services, and market links. Capiz needs data-driven support to reverse its slump. And Iloilo, while still strong, must be protected from becoming a single point of failure.

Above all, this is a moment to believe that something better is possible for our agriculture sector.

We are not locked into decline but we are at a point where we can rethink how our communities grow, distribute, and sustain food.

Farmers, local governments, and even consumers have the power to push for better systems – ones that are smarter, fairer, and built to last.

And we must start seeing our producers not merely as suppliers of output, but as caretakers of our land, health, and heritage. They are people whose work nourishes both our bodies and our future.

The numbers are sobering, but they are not the final word.

What Western Visayas does next – how it responds, redistributes, and retools – will define its food future for decades.

And perhaps, in doing so, it will show the rest of the country how to build a food system that is not only productive, but just, balanced, and resilient.