We were food self-sufficient. We were nutrition-secure. We said our grace before meals as we valued the gift of communal meal sharing. 

But this was before our rapid urbanization. This was before we traded our food sustainability for urban-centric concept of growth. And we paid a high price for such trade-off.

Farmlands were converted to housing sites. Biodiverse forests were cleared to give way to monoculture crops. Sustainable agriculture suffered the sidelines of development priorities. Logging became our lifeline. With little incentives and vulnerabilities brought by climate change, farmers were alienated from the land they till. Then, unscrupulous individuals cut through our food value chain and exploited the system.

The perverse impact changed the way we lived. Our food has ceased to become a celebration.

Vegetable production is measly 18.72% of the demand. There is much dependence on importation, forcing consumers to buy vegetables at high price. This is disadvantageous to poor households as they resort to foods with inferior nutritional value.

Further, the huge disparity between farm-gate and retail prices puts farmers and consumers at a disadvantage, while benefiting mainly the wholesalers and middlemen. Low-income residents are “food insecure” and they struggle to buy affordable and quality vegetables.

The current scenario results to an annual opportunity loss of PhP234 million. This loss is equivalent to the annual vegetable demand gap of 7,500MT at an average selling price of PhP32.05/kg of vegetable. 

Unabated, this will consequently lead to continued high dependency on imported and costly vegetables and eventually result to food and nutrition crisis.

Our food, just like our gold, has become a scarce commodity for every family’s celebration.

Few things that the Covid-19 pandemic has magnified are the economic and agricultural sustainability fault lines our city has been facing. The pandemic was a timely disruption to surface an impending food crises.

Though farming activities are unhampered, our agriculture value chain is disrupted because of the Covid-19 safety and security restrictions. Prices of agricultural inputs increased and cost of bringing farm products to market escalated. Moreover, movement restrictions resulted to loss of employment opportunities and income.

As the purchasing power of households weakened, consumers opted to buy canned goods, instant noodles, and other processed foods with longer shelf life but with inferior nutritional value just to meet the household’s food requirement.

Deeply aware of the primacy of food security in a city’s survival, I reiterated my policy direction when I first assumed office in 2016: “Way to go is sustainable agriculture!” 

Such call came in with an opportune timing, as the city prepares its entry submission to Bloomberg’s 2021 Global Mayors Challenge. Bloomberg Philanthropies honors the 50 leading urban innovations of cities around the world that were conceived or launched in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 600 cities from 99 countries submitted ideas addressing urban challenges that emerged in the wake of COVID-19.

As a precursor to the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge, we organized a city-wide Hacktivist Summit, a modified hackathon, last February 8 to March 5, 2021. The competition is a governance mechanism to generate inclusive participation among local stakeholders and constituents in response to the unique challenges of the pandemic. 

In the Hacktivist Summit, a simple agribusiness innovation concept was generated from one of the entries: From Farm to Table. From that simple concept evolved a bigger concept that covered the whole agri-ecosystem; this was further developed through extensive collaboration with various development partners of the city. 

Butuan City will launch an agribusiness model innovation, AgriBoost , that boosts farmer capacities and catalyzes market forces for a sustainable, food secure, and vibrant community.

It has four (4) components that:

1.) Bolster farmer capacities and competitiveness (AgriBloom)

2.) Catalyze market forces,  orchestrate key stakeholder activities, and facilitates data-based planning and decision making  (AgriHub)

3.) Revitalize trade & market practices (AgriMart), and

4.) Energize consumers and communities for a vibrant and food-sufficient culture (AgriComm)

Furthermore, it provides demand forecasts and creates price prediction models linked to farmers’ planning of production. This agribusiness model innovation will improve farmers’ competitiveness, create economic opportunities to displaced workers and affected micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), improve profitability of existing enterprises, and empower households to access high nutrition food

AgriBoost is aligned with the city’s vision of becoming a great hub city of opportunities.. AgriBoost will propel the realization of building a competitive and resilient economy driven by sustainable agriculture and industry development.

Food is our gold

AgriBoost is recapturing the Butuanon’s food ways and systems. It is the renaissance of Butuan’s culture of food self-sufficiency and communal meal sharing. AgriBoost is the modern-day representation of our iconic Balangay; where every food is a celebration. Every food is precious and revered as our gold.

We envision a livable city. A city that fosters diverse, walkable, healthy, and green neighborhoods.

We aim of designing an urban center that is inter-phased with the rural communities; each supporting the other in area-specific and competitive economic productions.

We imagine a city where healthy and affordable food is abundant for everyone; where every child is nurtured and educated as the best and the brightest. Where every worker honors the dignity of his labor. And every farmer tills his land with confidence and pride.

We dream of a community, inspired by mutual respect, sharing, and caring for one another.

There was gold in the olden times. And there is food in the new Butuan.

Sa lagsik nga dakbayan, our food is our gold!