Let's stop importing rice - Tanchanco

MANILA, Philippines –  Jesus Tanchanco, former food minister and administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA), noted that whenever the problem of rice self-sufficiency crops up, the usual solution that the government undertakes to solve the problem is importation.

“Typhoon Ondoy came devastating hundreds of thousands of ricelands and what does the government do to remedy the situation, resort to importation. When the rice production is below the demand, what does the government do but import once again. Year in and year out, the statistics on rice importation grows and it seems that the country is married to this solution: rice importation,” he said.

This should not be the case, he said. He said the government has to come up with a long-lasting solution to the problem of rice self-sufficiency. “There is a need to really ensure that our country has enough of the staple food on the table without having to buy from other countries, such as Vietnam and Thailand .”

He said when the government resorts to rice imports, it does so at the risk of losing its focus on food security.

“For the continued importation of rice demeans the country’s resolve to get out of the vicious cycle of low rice yields. In effect, the country is subsidizing the business of the rice farmers in Vietnam and Thailand and other countries from where the Philippines buy its rice requirements,” he pointed out.

Tanchanco said that more than the loss of precious foreign exchange, the continued importation of rice gnaws of the country’s self-worth.

“How come our country, host to the famed International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), cannot come up with a program to see to it that the rice farmers have plentiful harvest of this staple food?” he asked.

The IRRI, he said, turns up rice experts from Thailand, Vietnam and other countries “and yet the host nation (the Philippines ) cannot even go so far as to ensure food security via the production of enough rice to feed its 97 million population.”

He said the Philippines would do well to take a cue from China whose ricelands are mostly planted to hybrid rice. With over 1.3 billion people to feed, China , he said, is not only self-sufficient in rice but has also enabled it to become an exporter of the cereal.