01/08/2023
👌👌👌
There's A Better Way!
'We're Heavily Importing;
Launch Massive Planting!'
Whoever is giving advice to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to resort to rice importation, again, in the face of the grim prospects of El Niño's adverse effect on rice production should be fired outright.
(I suspect these are the same people who convinced then President Rodrigo Duterte to approve the Rice Tariffication Law which has done more harm than good for the Rice Industry and resulted in higher prices of rice.)
Not only is the recommendation for more importation based on wrong data, the announcement to import more was a huge tactical mistake as it sent a signal to Thailand and Vietnam, two of the three biggest rice exporters, to jack up their prices.
Besides, how to do you rely on the global rice market when India, which supplies 40% of the exported rice, had banned exports leaving Thailand, Vietnam and a few other countries as exporters?
Paano ka aasa sa importation samantalang kinakapos na nga ang world supply?
For the Philippines to be able to get more supplies, it has to outbid China, the world's biggest rice importer and a country a lot richer than ours.
Kaya ba nating makipag-brasohan sa China sa pagbili ng mahal na bigas sa World Market?
The impending Rice Crisis was already reported by the Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture as early as January this year when it warned of "an expected shortage in rice this year, especially because of higher production cost."
While this would suggest that our Food Security planners overlooked that warning and caught sleeping on the job, all is not lost yet.
If the country's planners and crisis managers play their cards well, this crisis could even be turned into positive opportunities for the local farmers.
Here are some strategic moves that government could do to address the expected Rice Crisis:
1. With the help of PAGASA, identify which parts of the country would not be affected by El Niño and focus all rice production interventions in those areas, including the peripheries of Liguasan Marsh, Agusan Marsh and other low-lying areas with shallow water tables. The periphery of Liguasan Marsh alone is estimated at 250,000-hectares;
2. Repair and rehabilitate all irrigation systems, especially communal irrigation, and rush the construction of more Solar-Powered irrigation Systems which would only take four months to construct, almost the same length of time for the imports to arrive in the country;
3. In irrigated areas, maximize the use of high yielding hybrid and in**ed seeds to increase production, including the In**ed RC 222 whose seeds are readily available. Gather all Hybrid Rice Seed Companies and conduct an inventory of available seed supply;
4. In Upland Areas where moisture is high and rainfall is regular even with El Niño, push for the planting of Upland Hybrid and Indigenous Rice Varieties. I am starting this move, as a Food Security Advocate, in my home province of North Cotabato where I have designed a program called "Kalahating Ektarya Sa Bawat Pamilya: A Hunger-Mitigation Program Thru Upland Rice Farming."
These measures will certainly increase our rice supply, stabilize prices while at the same time benefit our local farmers.
Let me emphasize that in submitting these recommendations publicly, hindi ako nagmamagaling.
These are just practical and doable solutions any farmer in the field knows and understands.
Most of all, I am. just performing my moral obligation as a Filipino to contribute whatever talent I have to save our people from a Crisis which could be avoided if only our Food Security Planners would give President Marcos the correct assessment of the problem and the solutions.
Local Production, Not Importation!
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