Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund

As Covid-19 continues to surge, several questions have been raised. One of them is food security. The truth is, the threat was even more felt last year when Vietnam planned to stop its rice exports. The good thing was, they lifted it in June (last year).   

Undeniably, we are dependent on Vietnam to fill our stomach. The world’s third largest exporter of rice, it is just right behind India and Thailand. Notably, the Philippines is its rice top importer. With this fact alone, we can easily surmise how huge our rice imports is and how dependent are we on Vietnam. In simple terms, if Vietnam’s export ban wasn’t lifted, we should have starved. 

As Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc, food insecurity concerns will become more evident. Remember, in the first quarter of this year, our agricultural output dropped by 3.3%.  However, as the report of the Commission on Audit (COA) on the alleged malpractices at the Department of Health (DOH) dominated the news, these concerns were all buried. 

Indeed, even if we are dubbed as an agricultural country, we are still importing several farm products. This is so insulting for a race who bragged about training the Thais, the world’s second largest exporter, on rice farming. So disappointing to a country that many believed is endowed with vast natural resources and beneficial climate.

However, then, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua (now, the country’s economic czar) saw an opportunity on this huge rice imports. As smugglers were feasting on this multibillion illegal trade, he pushed for reforms that shall make the trade legal. One of them was the Rice Tariffication Law. 

Undeniably, a good pick, this is a man who doesn’t have the word “retreat” in his vocabulary. To recall, when the TRAIN Law was yet to be passed and signed into law, he was always at the forefront of every panel discussion and debate, as well as, in senate and congressional hearings. In all these fora, never can we recall that there was a moment that he recoiled. Popularly known as the poster boy of the Department of Finance, this very young cabinet secretary is not just intelligent and knowledgeable, he has guts. 

Well, for one reason or another, we did not totally agree with him in his TRAIN Law advocacies. The good thing though is, he is pro-agriculture. Truth to tell, some years ago, in justifying the Rice Tariffication Law during a panel discussion, Sec. Chua said that with a growing population, “agriculture has to grow by at least 1.6 percent, preferably, 2 percent or more, otherwise we cannot feed our own people and we will be relying on imports and the price will go up.”  He emphasized too that “improving agriculture is the government’s priority in the next three years.” 

“In order to improve farming efficiency, the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) provides P10 billion financial aids to around 2.5 million Filipino farmers”, he added.   He further said that “the aid needs to be spent for mechanization, productive seeds, and items that improve farming productivity.” Moreover, just to emphasize his preference for agriculture, he stressed that if the proceeds from tariffication go beyond P10 billion a year, the excess will all go to the farmers”.   

Indeed, with him at the helm of NEDA, he shall be able to push or influence the execution of these financial assistances. What we should be apprehensive about though is how shall these funds reach the farmers/beneficiaries and in what form. Should it be purely cash or in kind. Or, as the 3.3% drop in the first quarter this year will tell, has any centavo been spent for agricultural production initiatives at all. 

Perhaps COA should, likewise, look into this RCEF. The taxpayers would like to know if the government provided farm inputs to our farmers. Has the government also provided the needed assistance, such as, farm implements; irrigation system; storage, packing and processing facilities; as well as farm machineries and equipment? Probably, the pandemic can be a reason for a disruption in the food supply chain but cannot be made an excuse for a drop in agricultural output as farmers are so spread out and physical distancing can be easily complied with.

Sarcastically, however, in our solitude, we can even wonder if our politicians are true to their words. The possibility that they are not seriously considering any solution to free them (the poor farmers) from bondage would, in fact, even be a big truth. After all, having poverty makes it handy for them to have a platform in every election – poverty alleviation.