Rice self-sufficiency looms

Philippine President Benigno Aquino sees the Philippines, which used to be the world’s biggest importer of rice, attaining full self-sufficiency and even becoming an exporter before the year is over.

That assumes that the country will enjoy good weather this year, Aquino said in a session last Thursday on tackling graft at the annual World Economic Forum.

“From importing almost two and a half million metric tons of rice in 2010, now, if the weather permits, we are looking at full rice self-sufficiency—and even the possibility of exporting it—by the end of this year,” the president said. The long-time quest for rice self-sufficiency was mentioned by the President in the context of reforms pursued by his administration in operations of the National Food Authority (NFA), the government agency tasked to ensure rice self-sufficiency.

Aquino said his predecessor had allowed the NFA’s debt to balloon to US$4.4 billion from $300 million over the course of the former president’s nine-year term, insisting on importing more rice than was needed to feed the people.

“So you had a staggering amount of debt, and rice that no one would eat, rotting in warehouses that the government, of course, had to pay rent for. Any sane and reasonable person would not have done this, but it was done, and that was the reality we had to deal with. This insanity was justified by convincing our people that we were not capable of feeding ourselves through tilling our own land, hence the necessity of importing rice,” he said.

Since his administration assumed office, Aquino said more funds were ploughed into irrigation, arterial roads, research into higher-yielding varieties and other technologies, making the goal of self-sufficiency viable.

In a study on the Philippine rice situation last year by Asian Development Bank consultants, it was noted that the Philippines continued to grapple with significant food insecurity. “Years of preoccupation with rice self-sufficiency and rice supply and price stabilisation have not made a dent on the problem,” the paper said.