This is in reaction to Amando Doronila?s column ?Rice queue nightmare.? (Inquirer, 4/9/08)

The Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration has put in place both short-term and long-term initiatives to stabilize rice prices and achieve self-sufficiency by 2010.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has directed the National Food Authority to engage in an ?aggressive procurement and aggressive distribution? policy, to stabilize retail prices against the backdrop of a global food crunch while the Department of Agriculture is still in the process of sustaining the strong performance of the farm sector and ensuring for the long haul the nation?s self-sufficiency in the staple.

Because of the unmatched farm spending during the Arroyo watch, rice production hit an all-time high of 16.24 million metric tons (before milling) in 2007 despite the midyear dry spell. It is projected to hit even higher?17.34 million metric tons?this year.

Rice supply is expected to remain sufficient in the months ahead because the summer harvests?projected at 7.1 million metric tons as against last year?s output of 6.7 million metric tons during the same dry crop season?will have entered the market by then, along with at least 700,000 metric tons of imported rice.

The long-term strategy of the Arroyo administration to further raise harvests of rice, corn and other food crops is anchored on the P43.7-billion package of intervention measures, which President Arroyo unveiled in the National Food Summit last April 4 at the Clark Freeport in Pampanga province.

This package, dubbed FIELDS, will focus on fertilizer, irrigation, education and training of farmers and fisherfolk, loans, dryers and other post-harvest facilities and seeds of the high-yielding, hybrid varieties.

The series of initiatives under the FIELDS program covers the following:

? P500 million for fertilizer support, with special focus on the use of organic fertilizers;

? P6 billion for irrigation, with the goal of rehabilitating all irrigation systems by 2010;

? P6 billion for farm-to-market roads and other rural infrastructure;

? P5 billion for education, extension and training of farmers on new technologies and research and development (R&D) on how to increase yields and lower production costs (P2 billion for R&D; and P1 billion each for capacity-building programs, trainers training, and the agriculture and fisheries education system);

? P15 billion in loans and credit for farmers, fisherfolk and other small rural borrowers, on top of the P5 billion she had earlier ordered the government?s Land Bank of the Philippines to make available to rice farmers (Ms Arroyo said she will ask Congress to write new legislation allowing small farmers to use their lands as loan collateral in banks);

? P2 billion for dryers and other post-harvest support like storage facilities;

? P9.2 billion for hybrid and certified seed production and subsidies until 2010 (P6.5 billion for the use of certified seeds, and P2.7 billion for hybrid seeds). The target is to plant certified seeds in 600,000 hectares this year and hybrid seeds in 900,000 hectares over the 2009-2010 period.

BERNIE FONDEVILLA, undersecretary, chief of staff, Department of Agriculture