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In 1950
the Italian film Bitter Rice, starring Anna Magnani,
took the world by storm. The film deals with the
exploitation of women workers in the rice fields of the
Po Valley in
Italy.
Even
earlier, in 1948, Isang Dakot na Bigas (A Handful of
Rice) starring Mary Walter popularized the imagery of
rice as a symbol not only of sustenance but of life
itself.
In 1957
Fernando Poe Jr. starred in a film with the same title.
In literature, movies, paintings and music, many themes
revolve around the central role of rice in the lives of
Filipinos.
Most
Filipinos cannot imagine eating without rice. At this
time, when one has to stand in line for hours under the
blistering sun to get three kilos of National Food
Authority (NFA) rice, it can figuratively be bitter
rice. It can literally be bitter rice if one buys dirty
rice intended for animals since rice husks are thrown in
for good measure.
Government policy on rice
Whenever
rice shortages occur, the government panics. A
government report had observed that rice shortages were
causing “distress and danger of disorder” in the
populous areas. The report then announced the government
was to:
“. . . [E]nter
the rice market only to prevent dealers from attempting
to take advantage of the people by charging undue prices
for rice; and import sufficient amounts of rice to
satisfy the demands of the people in case the dealers
fail to import this staple.”
NO. The
above government report was not written yesterday in the
year of our Lord 2008. It was written by the
governor-general of the Philippines 96 years ago, in
1912, as recounted by economic historian O.D. Corpuz in
his book An Economic History of the
Philippines
(1997).
Over a
hundred years of rice imports
Corpuz
states that we have been importing rice for over a
hundred years. Since 1901, to be exact. The main sources
of rice imports were Saigon, French Indochina (now
Vietnam) and Rangoon, British Burma (now Myanmar).
History does repeat itself.
It is
ironic that in a country where rice is romanticized as
the most important life-giving food staple, chronic rice
shortages occur. In his book, Corpuz argues that the
colonial government had “pursued a strong proforeign
trade and proexport agriculture policy from the
beginning.” Huge tracts of land were shifted to
export-oriented agricultural products like sugar cane,
which yield higher income than lands planted to rice and
other food crops.
The
preference for agricultural exports over rice production
for local consumption persists to this day. The
situation has been exacerbated by conversion of rice
lands to subdivisions. The advent of globalization and
free trade has not helped, either.
Planting
rice is never fun!
Filipino
children grow up singing that planting rice is never
fun.
Planting
rice is not only un-fun. It does not pay. For the small
farmers, income from planting rice is going down.
Leuterio Nicolas, a small farmer from Bulacan, farms
about 5 hectares of rice land inherited from his
parents. According to him, during his parents’ time,
income from a farm of this size was enough to send a
farmer’s children to college. Not anymore. The cost of
farm inputs like fertilizers and pesticides are going
through the roof, he says.
Very few
children of small rice farmers want to become rice
farmers themselves. In the meantime, rapid and
uncontrolled population growth ensures that there will
be many more rice eaters than rice growers!
Small-island agriculture
When Ben
Malayang III assumed the presidency of Silliman
University two years ago, he announced that the focus of
the
College of
Agriculture
would be “small-island agriculture.” The university is
located in the small province of Negros Oriental where
farms average from 1 hectare to 2 hectares for each
farmer.
At the
same time, the chairman of the board of trustees noticed
the declining contribution of the agriculture subsector
to the gross domestic product. She also observed that
enrollment in Silliman’s College of Agriculture was
rapidly diminishing.
The
chairman insisted that the study of agriculture must be
made attractive to students. Scholarships for tuition
and living expenses must be offered. Part-time jobs in
the university’s farms must be available.
These
decisions were made long before the national rice
shortage was exposed by media.
Antonio
Tiu, president of Agri-Nurture Inc., is sponsoring the
university’s scholarships in agriculture. Tony agrees
that young people need to be convinced that there is
money in farming.
There is
also food in farming. Other wise, we will be rioting
over bitter rice. |
