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It’s
really no great honor—in fact it is a crying shame—for
an agricultural economy like the
Philippines
to be known as the world’s biggest rice importer. Yet,
it is an indisputable fact. We are the biggest rice
importer in the world.
We
bought some 7 percent of the 35 million metric tons (MMT)
traded in the world last year, according to the Rice
Watch and Action Network.
We must
have earned that dubious distinction when our rice
imports surged past the 1.5-MMT mark about two years
ago. This year, this “world title” will likely be
retained by the
Philippines
as we import even bigger volumes to fill our
requirement.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has, in fact, announced
that we would need to import at least 2.2 MMT or as much
as 2.4 MMT for 2008, the biggest ever in the country’s
history.
It’s a
pity that the government has not, until lately, given
enough importance to the country’s perennial rice
shortage, which has been rapidly worsening over the past
10 years. The government, for a long time, has all but
completely ignored the problem; at times, it even
withheld or diverted vital budgetary infusions which,
meager as they were, would have meant a few more tons of
palay for the local granaries.
In other
words, the government has generally been just coasting
along, leaving our rice farmers pretty much to their own
devices.
Proof of
this is that for the past 30 years, at least, no
administration conceived and pursued a comprehensive
production plan designed to meet the rice needs of the
country’s fast-growing population. Instead of exhausting
ways to unlock the potentials of the more than 2 million
hectares of land devoted to the local production of
rice, every administration—from Cory Aquino to the
present—found it more convenient to simply import the
rice we failed to produce year after year.
How the
government became so laid -back in its outlook toward
the rice problem must have something to do with the fact
that for several years, the global supply of rice was
plentiful, and the prices were just right. For several
years the landed cost of
Vietnam
rice was cheaper than rice shipped from Tacurong, Sultan
Kudarat, in
Mindanao to
Manila.
This must have lulled them into a false sense of
security.
There
were even politicians who advocated a major shift from
rice to cash crops for export. They were saying the
lucrative export proceeds would be more than enough to
buy from abroad all the rice Filipinos would ever need.
That
was, more or less, the frame of mind of most of our
policymakers. But lately, it has, at last, begun to dawn
on us that the rice problem is one that we can no longer
take lightly.
Actually, the export prices of rice have been creeping
upward since the beginning of this decade, but as
anybody can see, the Philippines wasn’t bothered at all
by that trend. The country began noticing something was
amiss only in February this year when the prices of rice
being quoted by Thailand and Vietnam spiked sharply.
The
International Herald Tribune quoted Kwanchai Gomez,
executive director of the Thai Rice Foundation (a
research center like the International Rice Research
Institute in Los Baños, Laguna), as saying that “nobody
has ever seen such a jump in the price of rice,
certainly not in my lifetime [68 years], and that’s a
long time.”
The
reason for the sudden upsurge in rice prices is a global
tightness in the supply of the major food grains,
especially rice.
The
world outlook on food, by and large, is ominous. The
Arroyo administration has been told that agriculturally,
we have a lot of catching up to do, especially in the
production of rice and other food grains. The usual
alternative of importing our food requirements is no
longer an option.
The
facts and figures, as revealed by Albay Gov. Joey
Salceda, economic adviser to President Arroyo:
§
Global
prices of corn have gone up by 88 percent since
September 2006 and increased by 19 percent since January
this year alone;
§
Rice
prices have risen by 54 percent since April 2007 and 24
percent more in January this year; and
§
World
wheat prices increased 149 percent since April 2007.
As of
yesterday, the most inferior Thai rice (25 percent to 30
percent broken) was being quoted at $749 per MT. The
better kind, 5 percent broken, $900. Vietnam’s export
prices are not significantly lower.
The
problem, however, is that both countries are now
limiting exports because of local production problems or
to give priority to domestic requirements.
The
current global crisis in food prices and supply has, at
last, driven our own government to action. Thus, at the
National Food Summit held at the Fontana Convention
Center in the Clark Free Port Zone on Friday, President
Arroyo announced a package of agricultural initiatives
that would cost anywhere between P45 billion to P55
billion a year.
That’s
exactly what we need to do, according to Dr. Emil
Javier, president of the National Academy of Science and
Technology. Javier, who was once chancellor of the
University of the Philippines in Los Baños, firmly
believes that if the government wants the country’s
agriculture to realize its full productive potential
and, at the same time, eliminate rural poverty, it must
“invest in Filipino farmers.”
In the
manifesto he delivered during the food summit, he
advocated the mobilization of an army of extension
workers in the fourth- and fifth-class municipalities in
the country to help the farm folk modernize their
farming methods.
Dr.
Javier, who had contributed to the spectacular success
of the Masagana 99 rice program in 1976, apparently
believes that a strong extension component can breathe
new life to the country’s farm sector.
The
government should now follow through on its newfound
direction to invest in the nation’s farmers. Let’s hope
it follows this path with conviction and determination.
Having all the God-given resources, this country has no
business going hungry.
Omerta_bdc@yahoo.com |
