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CABANATUAN
CITY—Nueva
Ecija farmers, involved in supplying about 8,000 tons of
the country’s rice needs, these days have one more
lament: the irony that traders from some Asian neighbors
are apparently making it big from some Philippine
special rice varieties.
They
also suspect that part of the rice the government is
regularly importing are the very same varieties they
helped develop locally or are considered part of
Philippine farming traditions.
A rice
variety imported from a certain trader Gao Thom Thuong
Hang carrying the Rooster Brand and described by the
labels on the sack as “Milagrosa” and “AAA Premium
Scented,” and claimed as “product of Thailand,” took the
members of the Nueva Ecija Federation of Farmers’
Association Inc. (Neffai) by surprise when these were
presented during their recent meeting at—irony of
ironies—the National Food Authority (NFA) boardroom in
Cabanatuan City.
If the
Thai rice trader is telling the truth, the farmers said,
the imported Milagrosa rice alluded to must be the same
Milagrosa that belongs to the line of indigenous
aromatic rice varieties in the Philippines.
The
Nueva Ecija farmers suspected that some agriculture
technicians from Thailand could have “stolen” the
scented Milagrosa seeds while conducting research or
studying in one of the leading agricultural schools in
the Philippines, like the University of the Philippines
in Los Baños, Laguna, or the International Rice Research
Institute also in Los Baños. Many Thai and Vietnamese
agriculturists have studied at these institutions.
Rodrigo
Custodio, manager of the Luna Rural Development Center
and Tour Farm in Gen. Llanera, Nueva Ecija, who brought
out the Thai rice-export issue, said a friend in Canada
sent him an empty sack of the Thai rice that was said to
be selling briskly there. He also learned that the same
Milagrosa rice is exported in the United States and
Europe. The sack had French markings on it, too, it was
noted.
“Their
first reaction when I showed them the sack and opened
the discussion was denial. They would not believe that
the exported rice of Thailand is our very own Milagrosa.
Then they realized that Filipino farmers are being
victimized by some twisted government policies on
agriculture, especially on rice marketing, importation
and protection of rights to indigenous properties,”
Custodio said.
Unfortunately, the Milagrosa rice variety is not covered
by the country’s intellectual-property rights (IPR) on
agriculture, said Dr. Leocadio Sebastian, executive
director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)
which initiated the establishment of the Biotech-IPR
Center in 2005. The center oversees the application of
the IPR laws on patents of agricultural products,
trademark and technology-transfer agreements.
“We have
not claimed exclusive ownership right or applied for
protection of Milagrosa,” said Sebastian.
“While
we are importing so much rice from other countries, we
seem to forget that what we should instead do is
safeguard our own rice varieties, especially these
aromatic varieties that should be considered part of out
heritage,” said Prescilliano Evangelista, past Neffai
president and former Central Luzon regional director of
NFA.
One way
to safeguard the Philippine rice varieties, particularly
the traditional scented ones, is to “reeducate” the
common Filipino farmers on market development and
support, including the processing of their own produce,
said Custodio.
“I feel
sorry for most of the farmers relying on their ‘begging
bowl’—the traditional politicians—for their petty
needs,” he added.
He
observed that the Neffai, whose honorary chairman is
former Nueva Ecija governor Tomas Joson II, anchors its
programs on farmers’ problems asking for assistance from
senators and congressmen.
In last
week’s meeting, Neffai vice president Eugene Ramirez
reported a plan for the group to sell imported rice
through an NFA retail alternative called “Farmers as
Retailers.”
“That is
another irony: they are marketing the rice produced by
foreigners, while the rice produced by local farmers are
being bought at low price by the private traders,” said
Custodio.
He
concluded that, “The Filipino farmers have a low level
of aspiration. Traders, politicians and their own
leaders are taking advantage of it.” |
