Global food crisis: Rice farming in the Philippines

The high-altitude rice terraces of the Cordillera mountains are one of the oldest and best preserved examples of hydrological engineering on the planet, said to date back more than 2,000 years Photograph: Dan Chung /Guardian

Rice farmer Marlon Tayaban (left) struggles to feed his family. 'Life is more difficult. The price of rice is growing up, but we still have to buy it. I just have to work harder," he says Photograph: Dan Chung /Guardian

The Philippines is the world's biggest importer of rice. It expects to ship in 2.7m tonnes this year, almost 10% of the total needed to feed a population of 91 million Photograph: Dan Chung /Guardian

Marlon Tayaban farms rice on the 2,000-year-old terraces of the Cordillera mountains in the northern Philippines Photograph: Dan Chung /Guardian

Marlon Tayaban feeds one of his six children. The family has been hit by a steep rise in rice prices Photograph: Dan Chung /Guardian

Vistrey Dumawol grew up on a rice farm in Banaue and spent his childhood tilling the fields with an ox and scaring off birds with a slingshot. Today he guides tourists around the region's famed terraced paddy fields Photograph: Dan Chung /Guardian