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The bad
news is that international rice prices aren’t likely to
stabilize in 18 to 24 months.
That’s
according to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI),
whose director-general Robert Ziegler summed up the
cause of the current rice crisis in these words: “The
world has been eating more rice than it has been
producing. We have seen for a number of years global
rice stocks declining. And, of course, if your rice
supply shrinks and demand grows, then you have an
economic response—and that is higher prices.”
The IRRI,
after a weeklong meeting of its board of trustees
consisting of agriculture experts from various
countries, cited the following as the main causes of the
worldwide rice problem: population growth, leading to
increased demand for more rice; production problems
brought about by weather disturbances, such as storms
and pest outbreaks; accelerated interest in biofuels and
alternative fuels; conversion of prime rice farmlands
from agricultural production to urban use; diversion of
water from agriculture to other purposes; and reduced
investments in agricultural research and infrastructure.
And how
to solve the problem? The IRRI proposed six key points
for both the public and private sectors. One, increase
production to bridge the gap between actual yield and
potential yield; two, accelerate the delivery of
postharvest technologies, which includes storage, drying
and processing of rice; three, accelerate the production
of higher-yielding rice varieties; four, strengthen and
upgrade rice breeding and research; five, accelerate
research on the thousands of rice varieties around the
world, including approximately 100,000 varieties in Asia
where only 10 percent has been studied; and six, develop
a new generation of scientists and researchers.
As can
be gleaned from these short, medium and long-term
recommendations, the rice problem isn’t likely to be
solved soon. That’s the reason support is important for
the call for a rice summit among Asian countries so they
could to come up with a collective approach to the rice
problem.
While it
is believed that a regional rice summit could help
prevent the rice crisis from getting worse, many
perceive the current situation warrants the grant of
emergency powers to President Arroyo.
Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzalez indicated last week the
government might consider declaring an emergency to
stabilize the price of palay, rice and corn. According
to Gonzalez, under Section 12 of Republic Act 3452, the
President is authorized to declare a rice and corn
emergency any time she deems it necessary in the public
interest. Under such an emergency, the government can
control all stocks, whether private or public, and
distribute it as it sees fit.
The
provision says that during the emergency period, the
President can direct, subject to constitutional
limitation, the National Food Authority (NFA) “to
conduct raids, seizures and confiscation of rice and
corn hoarded in any private warehouse,” for as long as
the agency will pay such confiscated rice and corn at
the prevailing consumer price.
But does
an emergency situation exist at present? There are long
lines on a daily basis in areas where
government-subsidized rice is being sold at a much lower
price than commercial rice. The urban poor wait
patiently under the scorching heat of the sun to get
their one to two kilos of NFA rice, but since the
government itself says rice stocks are still adequate,
then there should be no need for drastic moves.
In fact,
the government has already taken drastic moves even
without the benefit of a crisis declaration. President
Arroyo has actually given law-enforcement agencies the
go-ahead to take over warehouses of rice traders who
insist on holding a rice holiday.
The
militant groups are saying policy reforms, and the
political will to implement them—not emergency
powers—are the best response to the rice crisis,
skyrocketing prices of oil and other economic woes
affecting Filipinos.
For
instance, the militant Bayan says, “While we recognize
that there is an urgent need for drastic state
intervention to control the rising prices, we believe
there is no need to give Arroyo more powers for
effective intervention. Existing rules and regulations
are already available; the government simply needs
political will to implement them if the regime sincerely
intends to provide relief to the public battered by
increasing prices.”
The
Partido ng Manggagawa, for its part, says emergency
powers “would be a cure worse than the disease.” The
militant group wants the government to instead run after
the rice cartel that it claims is “manipulating the
price of commercial rice even without a shortage,” and
to roll back the policies of economic deregulation and
land conversion that have “destroyed the nation’s food
sustainability.”
It
should be stressed that emergency powers are uncalled
for given current circumstances. What is important is to
enforce existing laws, and show that the government has
the welfare of the people at heart. We have enough laws
to deal with rice hoarders and price manipulators who
take advantage of the situation to make a killing at the
expense of the people. |
