Government told to rely less on rice imports
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Philippines: Increasing Rice Imports Endangers Food Security and Sufficiency
“Because of insufficient rice production, which is supposedly the area of concern of the Department of Agriculture, the NFA is made to import rice as an answer for the production shortfall,” he said. “NFA is made to pay for the tariffs and other related expenses. NFA is blamed for the rice crisis when actually it is not the culprit.”
He also recalled how NFA was blamed for the importation of substandard rice from India in 2002, where the government paid 9.5 billion pesos. But he said it was not the NFA but the Philippine International Trading Corporation or PITC that imported the rice.
Agricultural secretary Arthur C. Yap headed the PITC at that time.
In 2002, the government gave the private sector the authority to import rice to ensure domestic supply.
But NFAEA said the private sector failed to do its job. In 2004, the private sector only imported 14, 724 or 4. 75 percent of the 310,000 metric tons of rice it was allowed to import; in 2005, it imported only 11, 801 metric tons or 5.9 percent of the 200,000 metric tons allowed; and in May this year, only 13.23 percent or 21, 560 metric tons of 163,000 metric tons allowed.
The high market prices and the tariffs are the reasons why the private sector imported less than what they were allowed to import, according to Sanchez.
Research think tank Ibon Philippines pointed out that the government’s reliance on rice imports is not enough to ensure food security. Ibon said people can still go hungry even amidst the deluge of cheap rice in the market if they don’t have jobs or decent wages to buy.
“The Constitution ensure that food security is an integral part of a “just and dynamic social order” and a primary social responsibility of the government,” Sanchez said.
NFAEA said that to have real food security, the government should support the agricultural production instead of just relying on rice imports. Genuine agrarian reform should be carried out, complemented with subsidies on farm inputs and capital and investment in post-harvest facilities like the construction of irrigation systems.
According to Ibon, 1.7 million hectares of the 3.7 hectares potential land for agriculture remains have no irrigation system.
NFAEA also called on the government to withdraw from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization because of its unfair economic policies.
“There should also be adequate support to farmers and fisher folks through easy access to credit, marketing assistance, and extension services,” Sanchez said.
He said that in Thailand, a farmer gets 800 dollars subsidy per year while here in the Philippines, a farmer only have 13 dollars.
Sanchez said among the solutions to the rice problem is to strengthen the National Food Authority, intensify food production, impose a ban on the conversion of riceland to other uses and provide farm to market roads and other agricultural infrastructure. These measures, he said, would surely bring rice self-sufficiency and genuine food security in the country. (Grace S. Uddin/davaotoday.com)
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Davao firms to issue warning on closures, retrenchments
August 27th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Aug.27,2008
Arable Lands Should Not Be Converted into Residential Lots
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.
It’s good that Vice-President Noli de Castro himself has made a statement during his speech before the group of farmers in Bulacan that arable lands (public and private) should not be converted into real state or subdivision. In other way of saying it, he will not allow arable lands or agricultural lands for a real state conversion. But the strength of his speech regarding the conservation of arable lands in the country will only remain until his term and that of the Arroyo administration in 2010, unless he will run for the seat of the Presidency and win.
The fate of our agricultural lands in the country will always be under the control of whoever is the President, unless a law on the strict prohibition of arable land conversion into subdivision or real state will be enacted.
A bitter lesson has been served to all of us now-those in the government and private sector and the millions of ordinary Filipinos: that conversion of agricultural lands into residential or housing projects will surely reduced the areas needed for the planting of vast hectarages of rice,corn,fruits,vegetables rootcrops,legumes and other edible plants for human consumption. And this is of course the logical reason that with the growing number of population in the Philippines, the more our concerned govt. officials and owners of vast hectares of land should be more serious in enforcing the strict prohibition for this kind of land conversion.
On the other hand, talking on basic needs, it covers food, shelter, clothing and education.However, when we talk on what will be our priorities, mostly we would say that it is food. WE can bear with little clothes and lack of education. But when it comes to food, all of us-rich and poor-are always in need of it everyday. If we fail to eat even one day, we feel weak, lack of concentration on mental activities, could hardly sleep (hunger will always prevail over sleepiness), sluggish and other bad feelings of an empty stomach.. If the condition in the alleged “shortage of rice” will continue and its price will also continue to rise, many poor people who are jobless and landless will be forced to steal in order to eat. When food shortage will become the main issue, it will always have a heavy brunt of blame to the President’s political policies and priorities.
WE hope that Vice-President de Castro, one of the popular media personalities in the past, will put more meat to his recent speech in Bulacan in front of the farmers by advising PGMA to enjoin Congress to enact a law now that will strictly prohibit the conversion of arable lands (public and private) into a real state or housing projects whoever is the President of the Republic of the Philippines. This means that any duly- elected President who will be residing in Malacañang Palace can neither annul it, thwart it nor circumvent it by any subtle means.
WE need more agricultural lands for our food requirements so that we will not be buying rice and other agricultural products anymore to our neighboring countries and become self-sufficient in foods. Producing rice and other food products ourselves would be more resourcefully productive than relying on importation by spending millions and millions of pesos, which can be turned as our savings for other important
government projects and services.
On the other hand, there might also be other countries of the world where like the Philippines, some of their agricultural lands were converted into real state for subdivisions or housing projects. If there are countries that also consider rice as its staple food, then it would be proper for them also to enact laws that will prohibit the conversion of their agricultural lands(arable lands) into real state or housing projects. Likewise, they should also devote vast hectarages of lands to planting rice, corn, fruits, vegetables, rootcrops, legumes and other edible plants for the people’s consumption. With active monitoring and good caring of the plants’ development, boosted by the proper application of organic fertilizer and pest control, the possibility of a bountiful harvest of all these crops every reaping season will be the fruition, which will make every country become self-sufficient in food supplies. Effective applications of modern methods and techniques in the development of agriculture and fisheries sectors must be maintained and sustained by concerned public officials, farmers and the fishermen. Periodic seminars relative to agriculture and aquatic/marine development must also be conducted on an annual basis that will provide added knowledge in these fields of endeavor. Modern methods in the preservation of freshness of consumable food products for many months to avoid staleness and spoils must also be pursued, then implemented and maintained.
However, in countries where there are inherently few hectarages of arable lands with plenty of people to feed, food importation is the inevitable recourse. But for those countries that have achieved self-sufficient in foods, importation would then become unnecessary. Exportation of agricultural produce just for the sake of gain must be shunned, if by so doing, the exporting country’s inhabitants will go hungry and wanting more.
Each government of nations worldwide must first feed its respective peoples contentedly so that there will be no malnourished children and adults. Only if there’s a strong manifestation of agricultural foods surplus will a particular agricultural country dare to export its extra food stocks for profits.
(Copyright 2008 by Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)