Ipinagmalaki mismo ng DA sa kanilang State of the Food Report noong Mayo 21 na aabot sa minimum ng 160 days ang supply ng manok, at sa best case scenario ay 314 days. Sa average scenario naman, garantisadong may supply sa loob ng 220 na araw.

All of the three projections point to a surplus. If such is the case, why encourage imports? Kung 136 percent hanggang 183 percent ang chicken sufficiency forecast, bakit mag-aangkat pa?

And why should an agency whose sole mandate is to boost food production advise Filipino chicken raisers to scale down their output to give market space for dressed chicken coming from abroad?

Kung ikaw ang coach ng national poultry team, at ang ganda ng produksyon nila sa kalagitnaan ng krisis, why would you order them to resort to point-shaving?

At a time when we have to ramp up agricultural production in order to put affordable food on the table of Filipinos who have lost jobs, why this counterintuitive suggestion to limit production of the country’s main protein source?

The farm sector is the economy’s savior and safety net, and a job generator amidst massive layoffs. The only way for the food industry to absorb the unemployed is for it to increase and not decrease its yield.