The current administration did not only inherit a bloody record of summary executions from the unlamented regime of Rodrigo Duterte; it also discovered that the granary was empty, with the previous government failing to quench the hunger of millions while slaking the thirst of the grafters and the corrupt.
Now, the government has to contend with 23% rice import dependency in 2022, which was nowhere near the lowest rice import dependency in 2013, when the late President Benigno Aquino IIII was in power. In 2022, the Philippines imported 3.87 million metric tons (MMT) of rice worth P66-billion. The country is the world’s 8th biggest palay producer but also the planet’s biggest importer of the staple. In 2022, the country produced only 19.76-MMT of palay, a decrease from the previous year, and this could hardly nourish a nation that required 16.4 MMT of rice. Using the 50% conversion of palay to rice, the 19.76-MMT of palay means only 9.88-MMT of milled rice.
Before the Duterte regime, the Department of Agriculture (DA) was able to increase rice production to 93% of the annual national consumption, which meant that importations were limited to only 7%, and could be even lower had the government instituted the modernization of rice milling equipment and drying facilities as strongly recommended by longtime Philcongrains chief Herculano “Joji” Co. It is also not reassuring that some experts doubt whether the per capita rice consumption (PCC) of 373 grams per day in 2022 is accurate as the PCC means every Filipino consumes 136 kilos of rice annually or 5.44 bags or rice at 25-kilos each. Planning on the basis of increasing PCC means raising the country’s annual rice import volume.
Co, who has been pushing for modernization of the rice sector to raise output and cut down on post-harvest losses from the field to “solar dryers” along the highways and multipurpose pavements, has estimated the annual rice import volume to be equivalent to post-harvest rice losses. He has found common cause with farmers and other players in the rice industry who have been groaning under the weight of the highly-destructive Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) that liberalized rice imports under the false theory that the tariffs slapped on importers would help make rice farmers competitive. The collected tariffs went to the pockets of farmers, and the shrewd importers simply kept their stocks and released them drip by drip as prices skyrocketed.
Even if the rice farmers would work triple-time, diminishing farmgate rice prices act as a disincentive for millions of them. Worse, they have to contend with the need for expensive, imported farm inputs. The statistical portal Statista reported that the latest volume of fertilizer shipped to the Philippines was 2.17 MMT valued at $1.09-billion. The average retail price of urea in the country is P2,435 per 50-kg bag. The total average annual damage to agriculture is P9.76-billion. The expenses do not include as yet fuel costs and labor costs. Rural loan sharks also teem during the sowing months of May and June and collect on debt usurious debts in October and November. Chances are, these same loan sharks are palay buyers or distributors of farm inputs.
In 2022, only 4.8 million hectares were planted to palay, with the highest hectarage registered in 2017, about the same time agricultural lands were being converted into memorial parks, residential communities, commercial centers and industrial parks by property developers led by the plutocrat Manny Villar. The land use law may as well be the land conversion law that chokes Philippine agriculture. Reducing irrigation water for farmers would also deal a death blow for agriculture. This fear has been raised after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) agreed to sell water to private corporations at the price of P1 per cubic meter.
Villar already controls 67 water districts nationwide. Pangilinan hopes to beat Villar in this game as he needs to find better water sources for his Maynilad concession in Southern Metro Manila. The 18 water projects tapping the rivers of Cavite are a better option to harvesting the cadmium- and mercury-laced waters of the 94,900-hectare Laguna de Bay.
But then, hope springs eternal as DA Assistant Secretary Genevieve Guevarra seems to suggest in her news briefing on July 6, 2024 as the department is gearing up to respond to the parlous, hungry times. “In the works na rin po iyong ating ‘Rice-for-All’ naman, kung saan mayroon po tayong papalabas din na bigas po na mas mura kaysa doon sa prevailing market prices,” she announced. “So, ito po siguro ay ila-launch natin sa susunod na mga linggo. Magre-range po siguro ito sa P45 to P48,” the DA official said. However, stopgap measures may be good for the nonce. The point, however, is to guarantee there is always rice in the granary and food in the pantry.
