Where are we now in the rice crisis?

This time last year, there was so much optimism, so much bright hope. We were looking at the Philippine economy as one of the most stable in the region, our GDP getting better and better. On a trip to Thailand early this year with a group of business journalists, we were actually basking in a healthy dose of national pride as the CEO of one of the country’s biggest conglomerates cited the Philippines as among the best performing in the region, outperforming them in fact for the specified period.

That is saying a lot for the Philippines, really, because of late, that is, in the last few decades, Thailand has seen dynamic, even phenomenal growth as a nation, tremendously improving their infrastructure, courting foreign investments, promoting their tourism industry, and trailblazing in the field of agriculture where they are now a global force to reckon with.

At that time, the specter of a rice crisis was never even considered — it just wasn’t in the equation. I guess most of us actually considered the Philippines in the same footing as the other rice-producing countries in the region, namely Vietnam, Japan and Thailand, generally considered as the rice producers of the world. The quintessential image of the typical Vietnamese, for instance, was the rice-planting farmer with a pointed “salakot”. That was how the world viewed the typical Vietnamese. Another bucolic image that has stuck to the Filipino is the nipa hut in the midst of a glorious field of golden rice stalks. So we see, both of our countries have been traditionally equated with rice for generations and generations, but now, only Vietnam is self-sufficient when it comes to this staple. 

Curiously, Thailand used to import rice from us several years back, but look at them now.  Now, they are not only self-sufficient in this staple commodity, they also export to all corners of the world. Their rice export is voluminous, and they can name their price. What’s great too about them is they have developed other varieties that are considered exotic by the Western world, varieties that are now globally in demand, like their Jasmine rice for instance.

I know of local friends who eat Jasmine rice at home, nothing less, shunning local rice entirely in favor of this now very popular variety. Imported from Thailand by some Filipino traders on a regular basis, this rice variety is very white, fluffy, and the “sticky” type that most of us favor over the al dente type of rice typical of the “buhaghag” kind. It costs double the premium Sinandomeng variety, for instance, which I learned from my wife is what we have on stock regularly at home. Incidentally, this rice has no specific fragrance to speak of, so don’t get misled by the name.

While we are blissfully content with our local Sinandomeng, we were shocked that the price was almost double when we got our ration early this month. True, the dailies report that prices have gone down because supply has more or less stabilized due to heavy importations, but prices are still nowhere near the old ones. The Filipino rice-eating families are still reeling from the shock of these new prices, though I appreciate the untiring efforts towards ensuring a stable stock, which in turn translates to more stable pricing.

 I know that Thailand and Japan, for instance, have standing pledges to export rice to us, and by last reckoning, our bumper stocks are reported to be good for at least 15 days.  Fifteen days? That’s not much, especially considering that the rainy months are upon us, and our race fields will surely get inundated again. What does that say about our local rice output for the next six months?

Sometime in July last year, the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani of the Department of Agriculture fearlessly forecasted, or maybe targeted was the word, increased palay production by 2010.  The figure cited was 19.058 million metric tons, achieved through the “continued implementation of the hybrid seed program, the repair and rehabilitation of irrigation facilities, and construction of more post-harvest facilities and farm-to-market roads.. At least for this year, they were targeting palay production to reach 17.58 million metric tons. This figure was supposed to boost the country’s rice sufficiency level to 92.83 percent.

Somewhere along the way, things somehow went awry. Recounting the plans then, the National Irrigation Administration was going to rehabilitate some 41,000 hectares of farmlands and restore national and communal systems that “would generate 55,000 hectares of irrigated lands.” There were also reports of providing some 500 drying facilities to irrigators association clusters in 37 priority provinces.

Also integrated into the national plan was to build more farm-to-market roads, develop new rice varieties, give farmers access to micro-financing, educate and train our farmers on ways and means to improve palay production.

Actually, the newly-opened SCTEX serves well to link rice clusters to trader-millers, so this is one step. I do not have figures or feedbacks on the status of our irrigated lands, but I heard that another arm of the Department of Agriculture, the National Agricultural and Fishery Council has been functioning efficiently as a link between the government and private sectors through consultative meetings in the hope of threshing out the problems confronting agriculture and fishery. By the way, their position on the current rice problem is that the country has enough rice, if only the hoarders (and this includes households) will not complicate matters.

Anyway, we got some good feedbacks from NAFI which has figured prominently in rehabilitating the Sta. Barbara Irrigation System, the Camarines Sur fishery project, and other projects as well. They are the recipient of a Japanese grant, basically in the form of fertilizers which they bid out on auction. The proceeds are then used for various projects for marginalized areas, like those previously mentioned. They have also gone into corn centrals that have fully mechanized shelling and drying facilities. What impressed us with their projects is their Young Farmers Program where they encourage and train young people to go back to farming and fishing through seminars. Loans are made available to these young farmers and fishermen to start them off.

Pinoy English now better?

Just wanted to share this:  the Social Weather Station says that the “Filipinos’ self-assessed proficiency in the English language has recovered in the last two years after a decline over the previous 12 years” according to their recent survey.

In this survey, “3/4 of Filipino adults (76 percent) say they understand spoken English; 75 percent say they read English; three out of five or 61 percent say they write English; close to half (46 percent) say they speak English; about 38 percent say they think in English; while eight percent say they are not competent in any way when it comes to the English language.”

Mabuhay!  Be proud to be a Filipino.        

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