The news that Bill Gates would make USD 20 million donation to IRRI for rice research is suppose to be some kind of good news that the big corporations should emulate. or that the Philippines (host of IRRI) should be glad about.
But the rub on this news is this. Ever since Philippinese hosted IRRI, this country never had sufficient rice production. Time and again it has to import rice from Vietnam and Thailand, who, not too long ago, send their brightest agri scientist to study at IRRI.
So what is wrong with this setup? Why is it that the Philippines never really benefited from the IRRI research?
They touted this ‘milagrosa‘ rice that never got into full production around the country. While other countries greatly improved their rice yield and variety, the Philippines is stuck with this ‘7-tonner’ that is worst than the native strain.
In other words, maybe IRRI should relocate to other countries because it is disadvantageous to the Philippines. All these research and funding never redound to the benefit of the Filipino farmer or the nation.
With the presence of IRRI, the Philippines ended up a major rice importer. Why? Because the rice variety being given to the local farmers are the inferior ones, prone to disease, low-yield, low-quality rice.
One might think of some conspiracy theory between DA, PhilRice and insecticide companies. We also need to do something against the rice cartel syndicate.We have never achieve rice production sufficiency ever since we have IRRI in our country. Of course, it is not IRRI’s fault. But if the government and local scientists can’t do anything to provide benefit to the local farmers in terms of better rice varieties, then let us move IRRI out to another country. Maybe when are the ones sending scientist to other country to study rice yields, we will be better off. Or we can encourage and fund researches done by State Agricultural colleges.In recent news, we are on the verge of rice crisis — again. We are to import rice from Vietnam and Thailand because, as always, it seems our rice variety is low-yield that it cannot supply our domestic demand. And thus, instead of finding long-term solutions to the chronic shortage, our DA Secretary is telling us to eat less rice or import more. Wow, sounds like Marie Antoinette. Maybe we should build a guillotine for him.
As of latest news, DA Sec Arthur Yap denied he ever said that. What he said was to “urged fastfood outlets last week to offer half portions of rice because of a looming rice shortage.” He added that it is every Filipinos right to conserve rice, “especially that 25,000 bags of rice are wasted every day” . So what do you call it when Jollibee starts to give you half a cup of rice? Isn’t that the same is force to eat less??
Surely, it does not need a queue in the market to know there is rice shortage. The fact that RP will import more this year and still price is going sky-high is enough indication we have (or is going to have) a shortage, regardless what DA or Malacanang will spin for the public.
Houston, we have a problem here. For the government’s inefficiency (collusion and corruption?), we are to suffer by being forced to eat less rice. I cannot live by pandesal alone. Even here in distant shores, meals will not be the same without rice.
Already, opposition politicians are starting to have a grand time lambasting the government about the impending rice shortage and the increase importation. But when these people are the ones in power before, we also have the same problem on rice shortage.
And isn’t it suppose to be the long-ago obligation of the government to attain rice sufficiency ever since Marcos jumpstarted the program way back 70’s?
There can only be 3 things why we have rice shortage:
1. Low-yielding rice variety being dispensed by government (DA)
2. Rice cartel/syndicate
3. Misdirected agri projects
Take your pick.
According to recent population projection, it is estimated that the Philippine population will grow by 90 million Filipinos by the end of this year. And to think the government has shown its incapability to to provide adequate supply of rice for now, it is a looming spectre that we will increase our rice volume imports every year onwards.
It is not helping that the Catholic Church perennially opposses any modern family planning method, thus helping the population boom.
Supply of flour is also inconsistent that even pandesal, which used to be a replacement for breakfast rice, is now becoming a rarity in the bakeshops.
Now if only big business and multibillionaire like Bill Gates would focus their philantrophies on food production research rather than for donate to save some endangered mouse somewhere…
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January 29, 2008 at 7:12 am
that’s a very good news…hope that the fund would really go to the intended project and for the intended party.
February 26, 2008 at 9:38 pm
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MORE NEWS:
Philippines: Increasing Rice Imports Endangers Food Security and Sufficiency
MANILA — The Philippines is now Asia’s largest rice importer as a result of agricultural trade liberalization coupled with state neglect, and this threatens the country’s food security and sufficiency, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.
Data from the National Food Authority showed that from 1984 to 1994, the country imported an annual average of 151,588 metric tons (MT) of rice. But from 1995, when the Philippines became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to 2006, rice importation shot up to an annual average of over 1 million MT, a 587% increase.
Trade liberalization has also worsened the problem of small-scale palay farmers in the country, which government has failed to address. Rice farmers continue to be saddled with problems such as high production costs, low palay prices, inadequate irrigation and other facilities, and inaccessible credit. It is thus not surprising that rice production has not increased significantly over the past decade.
The urgency of the problem requires collective action on the part of rice farmers and other concerned sectors in order to preserve Asian farmers’ traditional rice culture. Farmers’ groups recently concluded the Week of Rice Action campaign, which brought together farmers, local communities and other concerned groups to discuss and highlight the value of rice culture and ecological agriculture, as well as threats of landlessness and genetically modified rice.
Rice is a staple food of Filipinos and the country should have the self-reliance to produce it. Instead of reactive and short-term feeding programs, the government should address the problems of farmers and other food producers in order to increase productivity and ensure the country’s food security.
IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues. (Ibon Foundation press release)
March 11, 2008 at 8:45 am
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Arroyo orders probe of rice scam
Gov’t grains said being diverted to commercial sale
By Maria Cecilia Rodriguez
Mindanao Bureau
Posted date: March 11, 2008
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — Furious about a reported rice scam in the National Food Authority, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday ordered Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to lead in the clean-up of the grain agency.
In her keynote address during the 4th Mindanao Cooperative Summit at the Limketkai Atrium here, the President said she was determined to stop corruption the NFA.
“Many problems are faced today by the poor. Besides the high price of oil, the price of rice is also increasing due to global warming. While this is outside the control of the government, we will continue to exert all efforts to resolve this,” Ms Arroyo said.
“The rice scam is presently one of the problems we are encountering in the Tindahan ni Gloria [program]. Many are tempted to divert subsidized rice to traders for the commercial value instead of delivering them to the poor. This is the culture of corruption that we want to stamp out,” she said.
“I have ordered the NFA to put its own house in order,” the President added, alluding to reports that millions of pesos worth of cheap rice had been diverted to the commercial market through the connivance of NFA executives and unscrupulous retailers.
Ms Arroyo also ordered the filing of criminal charges against the NFA provincial manager in Misamis Oriental for allegedly conniving with several grain retailers who admitted to being involved in the rice scam.
“There will be no sacred cows when the interest of the people is at stake,” she said.
In an interview, Yap said the President had been informed of the involvement of NFA executives in the rice scam. “She was furious. We will certainly conduct an investigation and file criminal charges against those involved.”
He added that they were set to file criminal charges against the unscrupulous grain retailers who sell NFA rice at commercial prices.
“That is tantamount to theft. We will make sure everyone answers for this,” Yap said.
Meanwhile, the President lauded the achievement of the Cooperative Development Authority and the National Cooperative Development Council in Mindanao in mustering a net capital of P24.6 billion in the past year. She asked cooperative members to urge Congress to hasten the passage of pending bills to support the growth of cooperativism in the country.
“I will continue to support cooperatives until I step down in 2010,” Ms Arroyo said as she thanked cooperative leaders for passing a resolution affirming their commitment of support to her administration.
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March 19, 2008 at 8:04 am
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ANALYSIS : Rice turns out a political hot potato in the Philippines
By Carmel Crimmins
Reuters
Posted date: March 19, 2008
MANILA, Philippines — For President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, already battling a corruption scandal, the price of rice could affect her political future.
Rice is more than just a food in the Philippines. It’s eaten at breakfast, lunch and dinner, sometimes by itself.
The country’s estimated 90 million people consume 33,000 tons per day and the government is trying to contain a surge in prices of the staple by securing guaranteed supplies.
The cost of some local grains has risen more than 30 percent from a year ago and while there have been no signs of mass anger, consternation is beginning to set in.
“It’s terrible, really terrible,” said Ronnie Tecson, a father of four, perusing sacks of fragrant Thai rice as well as domestic grain at one of the biggest food markets in Manila.
Near him, vendors at the Nepa-Q market were using erasable markers to write up prices on boards. Indelible markers don’t make any sense when costs climb so often.
“Some of the customers say, ‘Come on, help us out,’” said Annie Bernardo, a stall manager, describing pleas to reduce the prices. “If I say “No” they get angry and ask me what kind of person I am.”
But consumer frustration, limited for now to raising eyebrows and voices at shopkeepers, can quickly escalate.
Arroyo is worried that if prices suddenly spike or there is a rice shortage, people will take to the streets. Her government is moving to secure stocks now, ahead of a traditional lean period for local rice that lasts from July to September.
“Rice is a political commodity here,” said Earl Parreno, an analyst at the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform.
“If there’s a shortage, it would really heighten the anger of the people against the government.”
The Philippines, one of the world’s biggest buyers of rice, paid about $708 per ton at a tender this month for imported rice, more than double what it paid six months ago.
Despite rising global prices, the government has bought about 1.2 million tons of rice out of the 1.8 million it says it will need to import to meet demand in 2008.
The National Food Authority (NFA), the grain purchasing arm of the government that spends billions of pesos every year subsidising rice to the public, is now one of the biggest drags on public finances, with net liabilities in 2006 of nearly P43 billion ($1 billion).
But the NFA has only a limited impact. In local markets, traders often tell customers they are out of NFA rice, which is kept at P18.25 a kilogram, forcing them to pay nearly P30.00 per kg for other varieties.
MARIE ANTOINETTE
At the end of last month, government stocks were enough to last nine days, below the average requirement of 15 days. During July to September, the state aims to hold 30 days worth of stock.
Arroyo has assured Filipinos there is no threat of scarcity but her request to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last month to see if he could guarantee Manila up to 1.5 million tons of rice was exceptional, and highlighted official concern.
Hanoi said it could only ensure a supply of one million tons.
This week, the government said it would ask fast-food chains to start offering half portions of rice to discourage people from over-ordering.
“It reminds me of Marie Antoinette, who shortly before the French Revolution famously said if people had no bread to eat, they should eat cake,” said Aquilino Pimentel, an opposition senator, of the government move.
Arroyo’s image has been battered by a kickbacks scandal and although support from the army and from allies in the House of Representatives should allow her to see out her term ending in 2010, a food crisis could alter the situation.
Filipinos have overthrown two presidents since 1986 through popular revolts. Opposition groups, who have been calling for Arroyo to go since 2005, would be quick to seize upon rice shortages as a rallying cry.
The Philippines, which is aiming to produce 17 million tons of unmilled rice this year, has a long-term goal of self-sufficiency. Rising harvests, however, cannot keep pace with one of Asia’s fastest growing populations.
Three babies are born every minute in this largely Catholic country but Arroyo is unlikely to change her staunch opposition to artificial contraception at a time when the support of politically powerful bishops is so crucial.
The former economist is proud of her financial record with economic growth hitting a 31-year high of 7.3 percent in 2007. But inflation has recently been climbing, undercutting some of the benefits.
Florencio Rutagines, an electrician whose dollar earnings from years of working on a cruise ship are being gobbled up by a rising local currency and inflation, said his family could never cut back on rice.
“A Greek colleague once said to me; I know Filipinos: no rice, no power,” he said as he finished lunch at a Jollibee fast-food outlet in Manila.
And Arroyo knows it too.
(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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December 12, 2008 at 8:12 am
i want to know about rice that cambodia called “SANPIDOR” how to grow?what is it name sciente
December 12, 2008 at 10:48 am
TO RATHA:
Sorry, no idea. I suggest you search Google using that word.