|
Rice production, our staple food and backbone of our food security,
is in crisis. Within the backdrop of record-breaking world food
prices in 30 years, the current rice crisis also highlights the
country’s long-term neglect of local agriculture.
The chronic underdevelopment and backwardness of
agriculture is rooted in history. When Spain colonized the
Philippines, it took control over the land and other resources and
dictated how these were to be utilized. Local production systems
shifted from the local communities to the Spanish colonizers who
appropriated Philippine raw materials for the Galleon Trade.
For 300 years, the Spanish colonizers imposed
landlord-tenant relations, first through the encomienda and later
with the hacienda system. This intensified production of raw
materials for trade happened during the opening of our ports after
the Galleon Trade. To solve this, it was more convenient to grab
larger tracts of lands to satisfy the increased needs for export
than to improving technological practice.
Under the US colonial occupation, the
landlord-tenant structure of the hacienda system remained. The
hacienderos or Filipino landlords prospered as Philippine
agricultural products were exported to the US. In exchange, US goods
had free access to the Philippine market.
This uncontrolled dumping of surplus goods
limited any prospect for domestic industrialization and led the
Philippines to a growing dependence on agricultural exports to the
US and other countries. It strengthened the hold of a small number
of powerful landowners in the countryside which became the chief
trading and financial partners of US corporations. This dependence
on agricultural exports has continued today.
Agricultural production for local consumption
played second fiddle to exports. Food security and self-sufficiency
had been further weakened by trade liberalization and heavy reliance
on food imports to feed the country. From the Philippine accession
to the WTO in 1995, the contribution of local agriculture to the GDP
has declined from 20.3 percent in 1995 to 14.9 percent in the first
quarter of this year 2008.
Of the 14.2 million hectares alienable and
disposable lands, 93 percent or 13 million hectares are classified
as agricultural lands and yet agricultural mechanization remains at
the tail-end of our neighboring countries. Less than one percent of
farmers use tractors and power tillers. Only five bags of fertilizer
from the recommended eight per hectare is being used. Only 15
percent to 20 percent of total harvests, 65 percent at post-harvest
level, are recovered due to lack of mechanization.
Comparing our level of mechanization and rice
production per hectare with our neighbors puts us eighth and sixth
out of 11 Asian countries. This backward state of technology results
in a low productivity of around 3.5 metric tons per hectare, one of
the lowest in Southeast Asia.
Credit support for small rice farmers is lacking
and mostly limited to the promotion of hybrid varieties.
Infrastructure development is lacking as in irrigation which covers
only 45 percent of total irrigable lands. The government limits its
palay procurement to only about 2 percent to 5 percent of total
palay production and instead spends scarce funds on rice
importation.
This lack of support is further aggravated by
the existence of a rice cartel and unscrupulous traders and
government officials that manipulate stocks and prices, as well as
corruption in the agricultural sector.
Domestic production is unable to satisfy our
rice needs because of the generally backward conditions of
production riding on widespread landlessness of farmers engaged in
the rice sector. When the right thing to do is to strengthen the
local rice industry as our food security backbone, the
government’s disinterest has weakened it to our detriment.
But if the government is serious in achieving
agricultural modernization, it must address landlessness and the
lack of government support to sustain agricultural productivity.
Instead of extending a flawed CARP law, it should enact the Genuine
Agrarian Reform Bill which addresses both and puts food security and
self-sufficiency on the right track.
Agricultural modernization should be done both
to ensure domestic food supplies and to supply local industry with
raw materials. Steps towards ensuring rice stocks and improving
local production towards reducing imports should be taken.
Construction of required irrigation systems and development of
post-harvest facilities should be done. All these will ultimately be
truly effective only if the government reverses its liberalization
policies, addresses landlessness and implements steps to achieve
genuine food security and self-sufficiency.
Ms. Finesa Cosico, an agriculturist of AGHAM,
trained as an entomologist during her BS Agriculture degree program.
She also has a Master’s degree in Environment and Natural Resource
Management from the University of the Philippines.
|
