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By Conrad M. Cariño, Senior
Desk Editor
It is quite ironic that the
Philippines, with its Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)
and host to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has
never been rice self-sufficient for the most part of the last 20
years.
While some argue that the
Philippines is not blessed like Thailand, India, Vietnam, Myanmar,
Cambodia and Bangladesh, with plains and deltas more highly suitable
for rice farming, local experts believe the country could still
attain rice self-sufficiency, making imports unnecessary.
In fact, the country even
exported rice when then-President Ferdinand Marcos implemented the
highly successful “Masagana 99” program. The government carried
it out even when a rice crisis was not imminent.
Some of the problems causing our
low rice production even have immediate solutions on hand. And many
causes of low rice production could have been avoided if the
government had foreseen the present crunch in world rice supply.
Food Minister Tanchangco
One of those who foresaw
today’s world rice supply problem is Jesus Tanchangco, the former
Food Minister of Marcos. More than a year ago, Tanchangco was
already making statements that the country could not entirely rely
on imported rice to solve domestic production shortages.
“Taking the world supply of
rice, for example, statistics show that of the total quantity of
rice produced worldwide, less than 3 percent is being traded,” he
said.
The former food minister said
that a slight decrease in worldwide rice production, as low as 5
percent, would affect many rice-producing countries, including those
that import the grain.
Many factors can affect worldwide
rice production. IRRI President Robert Zeigler, in an interview with
Agence France-Presse, cited “adverse weather in Bangladesh, pests
and disease in Vietnam, and political problems in Myanmar” as
factors that will make a dent on worldwide rice supply.
The Climate Change Group of IRRI
also discovered that a drop of 1 degree centigrade in climate
temperatures can result in a 10-percent drop in rice yields.
Before the country signed a deal
to buy large quantities of rice from Vietnam, Sen. Mar Roxas had
warned that “Thailand, which used to sell rice to the Philippines,
could not commit to sell rice. Vietnam, for its part, said it could
be able to sell only one-half of the total metric tons the
Philippines used to buy.”
The Philippines-Vietnam agreement
in March for the supply of 1.5 million MT of the grains has a clause
stating “Vietnamese government agrees to sell, unless under
circumstances of natural disaster and harvest loss,” which makes
it possible for Vietnam to refuse to deliver rice to us.
For this year, the Philippines
will import up to two million metric tons of rice, even if rice
harvests this year reach over 16 million MT.
Avoiding imports
Rice importations in this crisis
could have been avoided had the government invested more in the
agriculture sector than spending the money on rice imports.
Palawan’s Rep. Abraham Mitra
last year suggested that the billions of pesos used to import rice
should be allocated to increase the domestic production.
He even pointed out that a
fraction of the import funds can be used to improve post-harvest
facilities.
Post-harvest losses in rice
hovers around 14 to 25 percent. This means that if post-harvest
losses are addressed, there may be no need to import rice, because
according to the Department of Agriculture, the country today is
90-percent self-sufficient in rice.
Felino Garcia Jr., a farmer
leader in Nueva Vizcaya, even said the government subsidy to
propagate high-yielding hybrid rice seeds is miniscule compared to
the billions of pesos spent for rice imports.
At present, the government
shoulders half of the cost of hybrid seeds bought by farmers through
the GMA (Ginintuang Masaganang Ani) Rice Program.
Hybrid seeds can improve yields
by about 30 percent. There are even hybrid rice farmers who report
palay (unhusked rice) yields of above 10 MT per hectare per cropping
on irrigated rice fields, which is very high compared to the 3.49 MT
national average, also for irrigated lands.
Flawed policies
Largely to blame for today’s
rice crisis is the flawed policy of past administrations not to
spend heavily on agriculture to make the country self-sufficient.
Notably, when Marcos fled the
country in 1986, the government’s buffer stocks for rice was
900,000 MT, making importations unnecessary. It was only in 1973,
during the Marcos regime, that rice had to be imported because
typhoons that hit Central Luzon in 1972 destroyed much of the
expected harvest.
Since 1988, the country was only
rice-self sufficient for a short break—when Roberto Sebastian was
Agriculture secretary.
Since then, the country has been
importing rice. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Arsenio Balisacan, a respected
figure in academe and agriculture circles who heads the Southeast
Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research and
Agriculture (SEARCA), believes that the government’s investment in
the agriculture sector is inappropriately low.
“The country’s investments in
agricultural research and related activities have remained at a low
level of 0.1 percent of the country’s Gross Value Added [GVA] in
agriculture over the past 10 years. This is far below the 1-percent
level recommended for developing countries and very much lower than
the 2 to 3 percent observed in many countries,” Balisacan said in
a paper about the state of Philippine agriculture.
Balisacan said that China’s
investment in agriculture in the mid-2000s was 0.8 percent of GVA,
which explains why that country is now an agricultural production
powerhouse.
Spending per farmer
In an interview with The Manila
Times, an official of the Agriculture department said the country
spends only P1,000 per farmer, which is low compared to the P3,000
to P4,000 per farmer spent by countries like Thailand, Japan and
other developed countries.
Likewise, much has to be done to
develop agriculture infrastructure, for example, in irrigation. Data
from the National Irrigation Administration show that in 2006,
705,000 hectares were served by national irrigation systems out of
the 3.12 million hectares of irrigable lands, which are mostly rice.
If there is any consolation, the total area served by irrigation
systems as of 2006 is 1.428 million hectares, because of the
contribution of communal systems (549,000 hectares) and private
irrigation (174,000 hectares).
In contrast, the Marcos
administration under the Masagana 99 attained a target of 1.6
million hectares of farms for irrigation, of which 1.3 million
hectares were covered by national systems. The rest was served by
communal irrigation systems.
(Continued tomorrow)
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