Rice Shortage? Treat Rice as a National Security Concern
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan Business Mirror
How come we buy rice from Vietnam, bombed by the Americans for many years, and from Thailand whose some better known agriculturists graduated from UP at Los Banos? How can they produce so much and we can’t?
Put simply, what is wrong with Philippine agriculture?
Prof. Than Nguyen of the Vietnam National University says Vietnam does not take its rice production lightly. “Rice is a matter of national security in Vietnam.”
The Philippine legislative body recently passed the tarrification bill and many are not certain if we are on the right track.
The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) said a rice tariffication bill, is the right and significant step in reforming the agricultural sector, and most importantly, in solving rice shortage.
The August body agreed with NEDA, passing the bill, which amended Republic Act (RA) No. 8178, otherwise known as the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996. It said this will pave the way for the
replacement of the quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice imports with tariff. This will remove unnecessary government intervention in the rice market.
But critics say otherwise. One like think tank IBON warns “rice tariffication and uncontrolled rice imports will displace rice farmers and worsen food insecurity without solving the problem of expensive rice. The government is using high inflation to justify rice sector liberalization according to long-standing demands of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and big foreign agricultural exporters. Domestic agriculture should be strengthened with ample government support
instead of being prematurely opened up to cheap foreign government-subsidized imports from abroad,” said IBON.
Treat Rice as a National Security Concern
Many reasons have contributed to the shortage of rice but the country withdrew from the market due to ample domestic supplies and a government imposed import ban during the main harvest period. The Philippines, however, will see a substantial increase in imports—about 70 percent—resulting from poor bumper production and dwindling ample stocks as the government hopes to promote
self-sufficiency through hybrid rice production.
How does Vietnam manage its rice production?
First and foremost, Prof. Nguyen explained, the government considers it a national security
policy to achieve rice self-sufficiency. Policies clearly spell out land is for food availability, specially rice, that it must be affordable, accessible, safe and nutritious. As for food availability, there are direct policies set to ensure food production, strategy for sustainable development for agriculture, farmers and rural areas, and a master plan on the development of agricultural production and vision for 2050.
The Vietnamese government targeted to increase food production by 2.5 times by 2030 by guaranteing the availability of sufficient land for growing rice, of which will be used for two crops of irrigated rice per year, he elaborated.
The government has a standing resolution that strengthens the capacity for scientific research and extension, with a 10 – 15% increased budget for this use. Improved training and scientific knowledge and management of farmers are also goals of the resolution to improve efficiency of food
production and income generation.
Because it is stated in the Vietnamese National Food Security strategy, it stresses that rice land is important for national food security. Effective land use and rice land fixing can ensure national food security. The purpose of rice land protection policy is to ensure National Food Security. The policy becomes important in the context of the agricultural land which is captured by
industrialization and urbanization leading to conversion of agricultural land and rice land for other purposes, Prof. Nguyen said.
There must be a set of supply support policies aim to ensure stable paddy supply for domestic demand and surplus for export. Another important supply related policy must be a monitoring of the minimum land reserved for rice production, he added.
Ensuring that Agricultural Land is Available
In Thailand, the government makes sure a large share of land is used for rice cultivation, Thakit Wirasak of the Chulalongkorn University said. It is the government's priority to meet domestic demand and even have surplus of rice.
Idle areas are converted to allow farmers to plant rice and other crops to obtain higher incomes, thus contributing to increased food security.
Four elements ensure food security-- accessibility to facilities and infrastructure, research and development, extension and market, Wirasak bared.
When incomes grow, households can promote their self-reliance in food accessibility. By clearly diversifying paddy land, it is easier for Thai farmers to implement land protection and management, for using land more effectively and giving opportunities for farmers to improve their income by
diversifying their production.
In Thailand, there is a change from the dominant role of the agriculture ministry responsible for
managing food hygiene, safety and quality) and state owned enterprises to “equal ground for all actors” which will help other stakeholders to have more chances to participate in export activities, and create fair competition of domestic export companies and redistributing the benefit to all stakeholders in the value chain.
Policies on rice business mandates all stakeholders to fairly operate in the rice value chain under the market mechanism with less dependence on state owned big companies. Priority of investment are made in research on new and better varieties, especially diseases and flood resistant varieties.
Research is carried out to find out effective crop structure for different ecological region and to ensure production sustainability.
The government has set a priority on facilitating increased rice productivity rather than regulating land area. If the paddy yield is not increased, the food security may not be achievable in the medium
to long term basis. Increasing paddy yield is not simple. It requires a lot of investments. Improving technology is considered as a decisive strategy, biotechnology in particular, the academe agriculturist elaborated.
Beyond the strategies mentioned above, Prof. Wirasak said the following are strictly implemented:
--Strong technical services delivery to farmers
--Planting calendar based on typhoon occurrence
-- Improve drying facilities.
– Hoarders punished immediately
Dwindling Rice Production
In the Philippines, rice is grown on small family based farms with an average size varying from less than 0.5 to 4.0 ha, hence the ratio is small. The possibility of increasing planting areas is nearly
exhausted. Yield increases have begun to slow as well. Added to that, the Philippines population is perhaps the fastest growing in the world.
The Philippines has approximately 4.2 million ha of rice lands and produce about 11.2 million Metric Tons of milled rice, sufficient only for 90% of the population. There are at least five major provinces
which produce rice as its major farm crop. Rice production in the Philippines has been rapidly growing since 1970’s until the early 1980’s when the country achieved self-sufficiency, having a surplus enabling the country to export a small amount.
Going further, a study of farmers' planting methods will show that about half of the country's rice lands are still planted with the old rice varieties that produce only about 2.75 MT/hectare. The
Philippines has so-called "Certified" and "Hybrid" seeds that yield 4.7 and 6.5 MT/hectare, respectively. The country's supplier of hybrid seeds even claim that the actual average yield of his seeds is actually higher (8~10 MT/hectare) and there are even instances of exceptionally high yields that are reported by some farmers.
According to the latest figures released by the Philippine Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), the production of unmilled rice (palay) in the country have risen by 5.13 % to reach 3.94 million MT in the first quarter of the year on increased irrigation and seed supplies.
Growing Rice Consumption
Rice is the staple food in the Philippines, more important to the economy and to the people at a lower income levels, hence an important intervention point for promotion of agricultural development and alleviation of poverty. Rice is what many farmers grow, but it is also what nearly all consumers eat.
Noticeably, consumption increased from 2003 which is only 26,000 tonnes comparing now with the national daily consumption of the grain at 33,000 tonnes, accounting for 20 percent of the daily household budget, on an average, with each Filipino eating 115 kilograms, or more than two sacks a year. Apart from being the main source of carbohydrates, rice creates what anthropologists refer to as "the physiological sensation of satiety".
Rice is eaten by millions of poor consumers and grown by millions of poor farmers in the Philippines, and to ignore fairness and equity would strip the analysis of much of its value. For most Filipinos, no meal is complete without rice. At this point, it produces only 90% of the rice demand and imports the remaining quantity from neighboring countries. Some 68 million Filipinos live on less than $2 a day, according to the National Statistics Office 2006 survey. Rice purchases make up 12 to 20 percent of their total food expenditures.
Prices of Rice Imports
Once self-sufficient in rice, the Philippines was listed by the US Department of Agriculture as the world's top importer of milled rice for 2007, ahead of Nigeria, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Over the past 20 years or so, the country lost nearly half of its irrigated land to rapid urban development. The shortage in the rice production of the Philippines has been augmented by imports from other Southeast Asian countries, particularly Thailand and Vietnam.
The Philippines is the world's biggest rice importer, purchasing between 1 million to 2 million MT each year, mainly from Thailand and Vietnam. This volume is equivalent to 10 % of the Philippines' total rice consumption.
Towards the later part of 1986, rice prices begun to increase until the present time. In the 1980’s, rice prices in Philippines and Thailand are similar but since then prices have rapidly increased in the Philippines.
Agriculture experts warn prices will increase continuously as exporting countries, pushed by growing local demand at home, will be prioritizing their own food needs.
--------
The writer used to be a supervising agriculturist of the Phil. Dept of Agriculture and trainor at the World Vegetable Center.
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan Business Mirror
How come we buy rice from Vietnam, bombed by the Americans for many years, and from Thailand whose some better known agriculturists graduated from UP at Los Banos? How can they produce so much and we can’t?
Put simply, what is wrong with Philippine agriculture?
Prof. Than Nguyen of the Vietnam National University says Vietnam does not take its rice production lightly. “Rice is a matter of national security in Vietnam.”
The Philippine legislative body recently passed the tarrification bill and many are not certain if we are on the right track.
The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) said a rice tariffication bill, is the right and significant step in reforming the agricultural sector, and most importantly, in solving rice shortage.
The August body agreed with NEDA, passing the bill, which amended Republic Act (RA) No. 8178, otherwise known as the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996. It said this will pave the way for the
replacement of the quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice imports with tariff. This will remove unnecessary government intervention in the rice market.
But critics say otherwise. One like think tank IBON warns “rice tariffication and uncontrolled rice imports will displace rice farmers and worsen food insecurity without solving the problem of expensive rice. The government is using high inflation to justify rice sector liberalization according to long-standing demands of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and big foreign agricultural exporters. Domestic agriculture should be strengthened with ample government support
instead of being prematurely opened up to cheap foreign government-subsidized imports from abroad,” said IBON.
Treat Rice as a National Security Concern
Many reasons have contributed to the shortage of rice but the country withdrew from the market due to ample domestic supplies and a government imposed import ban during the main harvest period. The Philippines, however, will see a substantial increase in imports—about 70 percent—resulting from poor bumper production and dwindling ample stocks as the government hopes to promote
self-sufficiency through hybrid rice production.
How does Vietnam manage its rice production?
First and foremost, Prof. Nguyen explained, the government considers it a national security
policy to achieve rice self-sufficiency. Policies clearly spell out land is for food availability, specially rice, that it must be affordable, accessible, safe and nutritious. As for food availability, there are direct policies set to ensure food production, strategy for sustainable development for agriculture, farmers and rural areas, and a master plan on the development of agricultural production and vision for 2050.
The Vietnamese government targeted to increase food production by 2.5 times by 2030 by guaranteing the availability of sufficient land for growing rice, of which will be used for two crops of irrigated rice per year, he elaborated.
The government has a standing resolution that strengthens the capacity for scientific research and extension, with a 10 – 15% increased budget for this use. Improved training and scientific knowledge and management of farmers are also goals of the resolution to improve efficiency of food
production and income generation.
Because it is stated in the Vietnamese National Food Security strategy, it stresses that rice land is important for national food security. Effective land use and rice land fixing can ensure national food security. The purpose of rice land protection policy is to ensure National Food Security. The policy becomes important in the context of the agricultural land which is captured by
industrialization and urbanization leading to conversion of agricultural land and rice land for other purposes, Prof. Nguyen said.
There must be a set of supply support policies aim to ensure stable paddy supply for domestic demand and surplus for export. Another important supply related policy must be a monitoring of the minimum land reserved for rice production, he added.
Ensuring that Agricultural Land is Available
In Thailand, the government makes sure a large share of land is used for rice cultivation, Thakit Wirasak of the Chulalongkorn University said. It is the government's priority to meet domestic demand and even have surplus of rice.
Idle areas are converted to allow farmers to plant rice and other crops to obtain higher incomes, thus contributing to increased food security.
Four elements ensure food security-- accessibility to facilities and infrastructure, research and development, extension and market, Wirasak bared.
When incomes grow, households can promote their self-reliance in food accessibility. By clearly diversifying paddy land, it is easier for Thai farmers to implement land protection and management, for using land more effectively and giving opportunities for farmers to improve their income by
diversifying their production.
In Thailand, there is a change from the dominant role of the agriculture ministry responsible for
managing food hygiene, safety and quality) and state owned enterprises to “equal ground for all actors” which will help other stakeholders to have more chances to participate in export activities, and create fair competition of domestic export companies and redistributing the benefit to all stakeholders in the value chain.
Policies on rice business mandates all stakeholders to fairly operate in the rice value chain under the market mechanism with less dependence on state owned big companies. Priority of investment are made in research on new and better varieties, especially diseases and flood resistant varieties.
Research is carried out to find out effective crop structure for different ecological region and to ensure production sustainability.
The government has set a priority on facilitating increased rice productivity rather than regulating land area. If the paddy yield is not increased, the food security may not be achievable in the medium
to long term basis. Increasing paddy yield is not simple. It requires a lot of investments. Improving technology is considered as a decisive strategy, biotechnology in particular, the academe agriculturist elaborated.
Beyond the strategies mentioned above, Prof. Wirasak said the following are strictly implemented:
--Strong technical services delivery to farmers
--Planting calendar based on typhoon occurrence
-- Improve drying facilities.
– Hoarders punished immediately
Dwindling Rice Production
In the Philippines, rice is grown on small family based farms with an average size varying from less than 0.5 to 4.0 ha, hence the ratio is small. The possibility of increasing planting areas is nearly
exhausted. Yield increases have begun to slow as well. Added to that, the Philippines population is perhaps the fastest growing in the world.
The Philippines has approximately 4.2 million ha of rice lands and produce about 11.2 million Metric Tons of milled rice, sufficient only for 90% of the population. There are at least five major provinces
which produce rice as its major farm crop. Rice production in the Philippines has been rapidly growing since 1970’s until the early 1980’s when the country achieved self-sufficiency, having a surplus enabling the country to export a small amount.
Going further, a study of farmers' planting methods will show that about half of the country's rice lands are still planted with the old rice varieties that produce only about 2.75 MT/hectare. The
Philippines has so-called "Certified" and "Hybrid" seeds that yield 4.7 and 6.5 MT/hectare, respectively. The country's supplier of hybrid seeds even claim that the actual average yield of his seeds is actually higher (8~10 MT/hectare) and there are even instances of exceptionally high yields that are reported by some farmers.
According to the latest figures released by the Philippine Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), the production of unmilled rice (palay) in the country have risen by 5.13 % to reach 3.94 million MT in the first quarter of the year on increased irrigation and seed supplies.
Growing Rice Consumption
Rice is the staple food in the Philippines, more important to the economy and to the people at a lower income levels, hence an important intervention point for promotion of agricultural development and alleviation of poverty. Rice is what many farmers grow, but it is also what nearly all consumers eat.
Noticeably, consumption increased from 2003 which is only 26,000 tonnes comparing now with the national daily consumption of the grain at 33,000 tonnes, accounting for 20 percent of the daily household budget, on an average, with each Filipino eating 115 kilograms, or more than two sacks a year. Apart from being the main source of carbohydrates, rice creates what anthropologists refer to as "the physiological sensation of satiety".
Rice is eaten by millions of poor consumers and grown by millions of poor farmers in the Philippines, and to ignore fairness and equity would strip the analysis of much of its value. For most Filipinos, no meal is complete without rice. At this point, it produces only 90% of the rice demand and imports the remaining quantity from neighboring countries. Some 68 million Filipinos live on less than $2 a day, according to the National Statistics Office 2006 survey. Rice purchases make up 12 to 20 percent of their total food expenditures.
Prices of Rice Imports
Once self-sufficient in rice, the Philippines was listed by the US Department of Agriculture as the world's top importer of milled rice for 2007, ahead of Nigeria, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Over the past 20 years or so, the country lost nearly half of its irrigated land to rapid urban development. The shortage in the rice production of the Philippines has been augmented by imports from other Southeast Asian countries, particularly Thailand and Vietnam.
The Philippines is the world's biggest rice importer, purchasing between 1 million to 2 million MT each year, mainly from Thailand and Vietnam. This volume is equivalent to 10 % of the Philippines' total rice consumption.
Towards the later part of 1986, rice prices begun to increase until the present time. In the 1980’s, rice prices in Philippines and Thailand are similar but since then prices have rapidly increased in the Philippines.
Agriculture experts warn prices will increase continuously as exporting countries, pushed by growing local demand at home, will be prioritizing their own food needs.
--------
The writer used to be a supervising agriculturist of the Phil. Dept of Agriculture and trainor at the World Vegetable Center.
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