A critical analysis of the Philippine Fertilizer, Irrigation, Extension, Loans, Dryers, and Seeds (F.I.E.L.D.S.) program

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to understand how the Philippine government viewed the problem and the corresponding solution to hunger and the fulfillment of the right to food in the country. The study aimed to (1) identify and analyze the Fertilizer, Irrigation, Extension, Loans, Dryers and Seeds (F.I.E.L.D.S.) Program's general framework on poverty and hunger, and the extent of neoliberalism's influence on such framework and (2) to examine the Program's compliance with international human rights norms and standards, and the extent of neoliberalism's influence on its compliance. This was a Documentary Research that used all primary and secondary texts relevant and related to the F.I.E.L.D.S. Program from 2008 up to the present, particularly the Philippine Rice Masterplan of 2009-2013. Data were gathered and analyzed in relation to (1) the theoretical perspectives on poverty and hunger and (2) the normative content, standards and principles on human rights, particularly the right to food. This study showed that the Philippine government, despite its invocation of human rights language in the F.I.E.L.D.S. Program and related documents, was still stuck in the productionist framework that considers hunger mainly as a function of the availability and supply of food. This was consistent with a neoliberal thinking which sees the primacy of the market as the solution to hunger and to the realization of the right to food of Filipino farmers