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Skyrocketing oil prices, the fight over control of Meralco and other
issues have consigned the rice-price shock, which first hit the
country late March, to the inside pages.
True, the retail prices of the national staple
have stabilized after consumers realized stocks remained ample and
that the panic-buying was spurred largely by exaggerated reports.
But don’t let the lull fool you. A food crisis of global
proportions still looms just beyond our horizon.
Officials of the United Nations World Food
Program continue to warn of a “silent tsunami” resulting from
rising food prices, which directly threatens 100 million people.
According to UNWFP chief Josette Sheeran, at least 36
“food-insecure” countries now require multilateral assistance on
an unprecedented scale.
Fortunately, our country is not on the UN list
of food-insecure nations. A couple of international experts say why.
Kevin Cleaver, assistant president for program
management of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development
(UN-IFAD), announced during his recent Manila visit that the
domestic rice problem “could be handled pretty easily by the
Philippines” in the immediate and long-term.
Robert Zeigler, director general of the
International Rice Research Institute, has pointed out that
Filipinos have so far been able to overcome the global food crisis.
He noted that the Philippines, “relative to a number of countries,
adopted technologies quite effectively and used them rather well”
in order to boost rice production.
The Philippines, unlike other developing
countries, produces 90 percent of its food needs. Compared to, say,
rice exporter Thailand, the Philippines actually averages higher
yields of paddy, or palay. Our country is on a better footing when
it comes to dealing with the silent tsunami.
Recent developments portend well for Philippine
agriculture at a time of tightening global food supplies and price
shocks.
The first was the official announcement last
week that the farm sector grew by 4 percent in the first quarter of
2008 on the back of production increases in almost all subsectors,
including palay and other crops. This expansion was higher than the
3.3 percent growth in the same three-month period in 2007.
According to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap,
palay farmers benefited much from President Arroyo’s “timely
move to increase the palay support price to P17 a kilo beginning
this summer harvest season” or almost 50 percent more than the
previous P12 buying rate of the National Food Authority (NFA).
Production of palay and other crops rose 5.59
percent from January to March. Yap said this resulted from the
sustained higher spending by the Arroyo administration on the
Department of Agriculture’s intervention measures such as the
rehabilitation of irrigation facilities plus the massive provision
of higher-yielding seeds and post-harvest facilities.
Another positive development came in the form of
a memorandum of agreement between the League of Provinces of the
Philippines (LPP) and the DA to detail the agricultural technicians
in the governors’ respective areas. These farming experts will
help the department implement its five-harvest, rice
self-sufficiency plan, which aims to make the country 98 percent
sufficient in rice by 2010.
The Local Government Code had mandated the
devolution of agriculture and health services to LGUs, thereby
stripping the DA and Department of Health of field personnel who
could carry out their programs at the village level.
Prior to the signing of the agreement with the
governors, the DA was like a military high command going into battle
without foot soldiers who could implement its five-harvest
sufficiency program. This logistical flaw was solved by the
agreement, which commits the governors to detailing their
agriculture technicians to the DA throughout the rice
self-sufficiency program.
The agreement was signed by Yap and LPP
president Misamis Occidental Gov. Loreto Ocampos and witnessed by
Governors Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur, who is LPP
chairman, and Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar, LPP secretary-general.
The governors also agreed to funnel a portion of
their Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA) to implement the DA’s rice
self-sufficiency program. Particular focus would be given to the
acquisition of fertilizers to be used for the ongoing Quick
Turnaround (QTA) Program and for the wet or main planting season.
The President issued an executive order
monetizing the still-unremitted IRA share of LGUs totaling P12.5
billion. Yap said she issued the directive with the understanding
that the local executives would use the funds for, among others, the
rice self-sufficiency program.
The DA’s rice program runs for five cropping
seasons because it includes the wet or main crops this year and in
2009, the dry crops next year and in 2010, and another QTA planting
program in-between next year’s dry and wet crops.
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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