Bantay Bigas: Guarding our Rice Industry
July 7, 2011

AGRICULTURE remains a big challenge for the country as numbers from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics show that corn and palay production contracted last year. From producing as much as 16.8 million metric tons (MT) of palay in 2008, we now only have around 15.8 million MT production for last year. The same thing happened in corn output last year where the total production has gone down by 9.34 percent from 7.0 million MT in 2009 to only 6.3 million MT in 2010. Palay production is on the decline for two consecutive years already.

There are a host of reasons that are cited for the drop in crop output. One is the impacts of climate change and the vulnerability of our agricultural sector to both drought and rainfall. There is of course the unabated land conversion for residential, commercial and industrial land use and the replacement of staple food crops with high-valued crops. These crops are grown mostly for export markets.

On top of these are the problematic policies of the government with regard to agrarian reform and food security such as depending on importing rice to fill in the production gap. The Philippines has been one of the top importers of rice in the past few years.

Last month, representatives of farmers’ organizations, cooperatives, rice millers, irrigators’ associations, suppliers and consumers joined together in a meeting to discuss the problems in rice production in the country. Led by Bantay Bigas, the meeting, called the National People’s Rice Congress, was held at the National Irrigation Administration’s Convention Hall last February 8, 2011. The goal of the Rice Congress was to strengthen the Philippine rice industry to ensure that the country becomes 100 percent rice self-sufficient in the next few years.

The groups presented the highlights of the event to Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala on February 9, 2011. Anakpawis Party List Representative Rafael V. Ma-riano shared the points of unities that the delegates of the meeting and Secretary Alcala gave a commitment that National Food Authority (NFA) Council will study the recommendations of Bantay Bigas.

Bantay Bigas has been conducting series of dialogues with the NFA on the determination of a reasonable palay and rice prices since 2009. Its spokesperson Lita Mariano pointed out the urgency of restoring the NFA subsidy of P 8 billion and increasing the palay procurement budget of the NFA to at least P 15 billion. She also reiterated the urgent demand of farmers and consumers to bring back to the market the P 18.25 per kilo NFA rice.

Some of the policy actions that are recommended by the Rice Congress are adequate budget for agricultural production and to give subsidies in particular to the grains industry. These should include production subsidies, seeds and organic fertilizers subsidies and improved services and facilities in the production chain. On top of these, the NFA should have the capacity to procure at least a quarter of the total palay production of Filipino farmers.

Modern tools and machinery for planting, harvesting, and processing of rice should be made available to improve and increase total rice production in the country. This should be coupled with the immediate development and improvement of agricultural infrastructure especially for irrigation for palay production. The congress also reiterated that irrigation fees should be reasonable, affordable or subsidized by the national government. They also recommended that water for irrigation should be prioritized especially in times of drought.

Recognizing the role of women farm workers in the rice production, the congress also asked for mechanisms that will support and enhance women’s significant role in the rice industry both as producers and consumers. The congress also stressed that locally adapted rice varieties should be fully utilized in rice production and these should be protected from biopiracy and private appropriation. Farmer’s rights over the seeds should be recognized. Local seed exchange and seed banks should be encouraged and supported.

The delegates pointed out that these suggestions should be done simultaneously while the government reverses its deregulation, liberalisation and privatization policies in the grains industry. Public sector unions who joined the Rice Congress said that these privatization policies are in the form of the so-called “decoupling”, “rationalization”, “re-engineering” and restructuring of the NFA and other related agencies. Land conversion should also be stopped according to the delegates such as the encroachment of mining and other industrial projects in agricultural lands.

While these suggestions may be easily done, a longer perspective to solving the rice crisis should also be taken into account. There is the long-running problem of landlessness in the country. This should be one of the top priorities of the government should it want to spur our agricultural output. The bills filed at the Philippine House of Representatives, House Bill 374, also known as the Genuine Agrarian Reform Act of 2010 and House Bill 3105 or the Rice Industry Development Act are steps in the right direction.

Author:
Ms. Finesa Cosico
Author Description:
Ms. Cosico is an agriculturist for AGHAM-Advocates of Science and Technology for the People. She finished her entomology at the UP in Los Banos.
 

Science for the people (2): food security and self-sufficiency
July 3, 2009

Reports nearly a month ago announced the news that the number of hungry people has reached more than a billion people in the world. In the Philippines, recent surveys reflected the effect of the economic downturn on the unemployed, with nearly 17 percent going hungry in the first quarter of this year. Our people have been chronically undernourished and this situation has reached crisis levels (officially) in last year’s rice shortage.

Yet why are we unable to produce the food that we need? Why do our people teeter on the brink of going hungry everyday? What can scientists do in this situation? Continuing our series on what role scientists and engineers play in our society, we shall discuss today the issue of food security and self-sufficiency.

We start with history. Our capacity to produce food for our own needs and to ensure that each one has enough nutrition to live comfortably (food self-sufficency and security, respectively) has been destroyed since we were colonized by Spain and the United States. Spain rearranged traditional agricultural production patterns into en-comiendas and then later into haciendas leading to monocrop agriculture geared for export.

The United States maintained this situation and later instituted unequal treaties that led to the current export-oriented and import-dependent agriculture system that we have. Farm implements and inputs are mainly imported while production is geared for the needs of the so-called world market. Sugar, abaca, tobacco and rice are but a few of these export crops.

With our accession to the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture in 1995, the Philippines incurred a total agricultural trade deficit of $3.5 billion in its first five years, compared to a $1.69 billion surplus in the previous period. From 1995 to 1999, the country exported 8.25 million tons of banana, pineapple and mango, but had to import 4.74 million tons of rice and 1.18 million tons of corn just to meet the barest of domestic necessities.

This continued dependence on imported food shows the food insecurity of our people. What perpetuates this situation is the continuing lack of control of local food producers—our farmers—over resources such as land, seeds, fertilizer and other agricultural equipment.

In order to achieve food security and self-sufficiency, control and ownership of land must be given back to the farmers. Farmers and the Filipino people must have decisive control over the agricultural production system to ensure food security and sufficiency and as opposed to the current production pattern which is mainly dependent on the whims of “market forces” and the profiteering of traders and big landlords.

This situation calls not merely for a technological fix as the Green Revolution in the 1960s and the so-called Gene Revolution of the past decade tried to do. These fixes would not work on its own without a corresponding change in the socio-political relations that perpetuated the problem in the first place. Introducing blindly these technological fixes would only aggravate existing social inequities while alienating the very people it purports to give benefit to.

With landlords controlling large tracts of agricultural lands, there is little room for development, as they would rather impose worse produce-sharing ratios, which leaves our poor farmers deeper and deeper in their debt. To be able to ensure that we can feed our nation, there is a great need to break the unequal landlord-farmer relationship. This relationship is based on the control of land.

Pending bills in Congress, such as the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill or GARB, seeks to address this situation. Genuine land reform entails complete control of farmers over the land they till without the oppressive land-rent system. In addition to this, there should be a simultaneous national plan for domestic food production along with directed research and subsidy to support production.

A national food security and self-sufficiency plan includes true development efforts to improve farmlands physically, mechanization of farming processes, agricultural research and extension and prioritization of food production for national consumption. Equally important would be the provision of agricultural assistance such as farm credits, knowledge transfer, infrastructures, farm equipments, and agricultural inputs. Farmer organizations and cooperatives are necessary to facilitate the needed assistance to improve well-being of the peasants.

Working with existing farmer organizations and cooperatives, agriculturists and well-meaning scientists can directly bring their discoveries to them. AGHAM currently helps communities in this way. Yet one should also realize that this is a short term solution as long term food security and self-sufficiency would be contingent on genuine land reform.

Furthermore, as agriculture can provide raw materials for industries and a market for its products as well, there is a need to develop it within plans for national industrialization so that design and manufacturing of machines and facilities fulfills the requirements of a self-sufficient and secured food production and distribution.

Author:
Ma. Finesa Cosico
Author Description:
Ms. Cosico is an entomologist and a member of AGHAM