Section 20August 14, 2009, Sec./Art. 20

Food Security and Productive Resources. - The State recognizes the contribution of women to food production and shall ensure its sustainability and sufficiency with the active participation of women. Towards this end, the State shall guarantee, at all times, the availability in the market of safe and health-giving food to satisfy the dietary needs of the population, giving particular attention to the specific needs of poor girl-children and marginalized women, especially pregnant and lactating mothers and their young children. To further address this, the State shall ensure:

(a) Right to Food. - The State shall guarantee the availability of food in quantity and quality sufficient to satisfy the dietary needs of individuals, the physical and economic accessibility for everyone to adequate food that is culturally acceptable and free from unsafe substances and culturally accepted, and the accurate and substantial information to the availability of food, including the right to full, accurate, and truthful information about safe and health-giving foods and how to produce and have regular and easy access to them;

(b) Right to Resources for Food Production. - The State shall guarantee women a vital role in food production by giving priority to their rights to land, credit, and infrastructure support, technical training, and technological and marketing assistance. The State shall promote women-friendly technology as a high priority activity in agriculture and shall promote the right to adequate food by proactively engaging in activities intended to strengthen access to, utilization of, and receipt of accurate and substantial information on resources and means to ensure women's livelihood, including food security:

(1) Equal status shall be given to women and men, whether married or not, in the titling of the land and issuance of stewardship contracts and patents;

(2) Equal treatment shall be given to women and men beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program, wherein the vested right of a woman agrarian reform beneficiary is defined by a woman's relationship to tillage, i.e., her direct and indirect contribution to the development of the land;

(3) Customary rights of women to the land, including access to and control of the fruits and benefits, shall be recognized in circumstances where private ownership is not possible, such as ancestral domain claims:

(4) Information and assistance in claiming rights to the land shall be made available to women at all times;

(5) Equal rights to women to the enjoyment, use, and management of land, water, and other natural resources within their communities or ancestral domains;

(6) Equal access to the use and management of fisheries and aquatic resources, and all the rights and benefits accruing to stakeholders in the fishing industry;

(7) Equal status shall be given to women and men in the issuance of stewardship or lease agreements and other fishery rights that may be granted for the use and management of coastal and aquatic resources. In the same manner, women's organizations shall be given equal treatment as with other marginalized fishers organizations in the issuance of stewardship or lease agreements or other fishery rights for the use and management of such coastal and aquatic resources which may include providing support to women-engaged coastal resources;

(8) There shall be no discrimination against women in the deputization of fish wardens;

(9) Women-friendly and sustainable agriculture technology shall be designed based on accessibility and viability in consultation with women's organizations;

(10) Access to small farmer-based and controlled seeds production and distribution shall be ensured and protected;

(11) Indigenous practices of women in seed storage and cultivation shall be recognized, encouraged, and protected;

(12) Equal rights shall be given to women to be members of farmers' organizations to ensure wider access to and control of the means of production;

(13) Provide opportunities for empowering women fishers to be involved in the control and management, not only of the catch and production of aquamarine resources but also, to engage in entrepreneurial activities which will add value to production and marketing ventures; and

(14) Provide economic opportunities for the indigenous women. particularly access to market for their produce.

In the enforcement of the foregoing, the requirements of law shall be observed at all times.