Only way toward food security

The Philippines has a very promising potential to achieve rice self-sufficiency.  The country’s rice yield of 3.8 metric tons per hectare in 2007 is higher compared to rice exporting countries like Thailand and Cambodia. It is also ranked eighth among the top 10 rice-producing countries in the world. The country is also endowed with abundant natural water resources throughout the archipelago, aside from its mega-dams and irrigation systems in major rice-producing areas.

Unfortunately, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), an attached agency of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda), argues otherwise. It maintains that the country’s policies for rice self-sufficiency are “obsolete, increasingly untenable and costly,” referring to debts of the National Food Authority (NFA) amounting to P156 billion.

The NFA itself cannot be faulted for the billions of pesos of “losses and debts.” It is mandated to stabilize the supply and the prices of food, especially rice, and food security. For these purposes, the NFA must be given adequate funds. The supposed losses in NFA operations are considered social costs beneficial to farmers and millions of consumers.

Forty percent of NFA debts are secured with Land Bank, Philippine National Bank and Development Bank of the Philippines, whose presidents are sitting members of the NFA Council, the agency’s highest policymaking body. These people are responsible for steering the agency into deep, rotten debt woes. They resorted to imprudent bank loans instead of just petitioning Malacañang or Congress to allocate direct and interest-free funding support for the NFA.

Opting for rice importation endangers food security. It is only a temporary stopgap measure to fill in the 10 percent shortage in rice production. Because one-third of our population belongs to low-income and poor families, government must ensure affordable, available and accessible rice.

PIDS failed to consider that available rice in the global market is a measly 7 percent of the total rice production in the world. The availability of this volume is further threatened by climate change, fuel price increase, political turmoil and other man-made or natural calamities.

We urge President Aquino to seriously adhere to a rice self-sufficiency policy, which is the only way our country can ensure food security. Government must provide adequate funds and logistical support to the Department of Agriculture and its attached agencies to enable rice farmers to increase production.

—LARRY M. TAN, vice president, National Food Authority Employees Association (NFAEA), (also signed by 41 union officers nationwide); larrytriple@yahoo.com