“It would be prudent to get our economic managers and the DA to forecast our import requirements till 2028”
The reality is the long aspired for self-sufficiency in rice is hardly achievable in the next five years, with our population ever growing and our farmlands less productive and decreasing.
Unfortunately, neither is rice importation going to be easy.
More than 90 percent of the world’s rice is produced and consumed in the Asia-Pacific region, which means rice-producing nations are also the biggest rice-consumers.
Only 7 percent of the world’s rice production is exportable.
That means we have to compete with other countries, notably Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and China among others to get our share of that thin export volume to augment our local shortfall.
Then again, our country hosts on average of 20 typhoons each year, some quite destructive, especially if it hits Northern and Central Luzon, even the Mindoro provinces and Panay Island at or near harvest-time.
Thus the need for buffer stocking on the part of government.
But under our procurement laws, government can only import when the shortage is imminent. With the RTA, the NFA cannot import rice.
We thus compete with other countries for thin exportable volumes, as in the present situation.
Thus, it would be prudent to get our economic managers and the DA to forecast our import requirements till 2028, and negotiate supply contracts, preferably on a government-to-government basis.
Vietnam has been our consistent supplier of rice, and, last January, we concluded a general supply agreement with it.
We probably could try Cambodia, if its milling facilities and port capabilities have improved.
While India is the biggest producer of rice, it also has 1.5 billion mouths to feed, and obviously needs to prioritize domestic needs.
The same is true of China, which has in fact been importing rice for their consumption requirements.
Thailand exports less, and prefers to sell its high-priced jasmine.
Depending on risk analysis, our big rice millers can set up and build modern rice mills such as we have in Isabela and Central Luzon in other countries, like Cambodia and Myanmar. We can even go into contract farming and milling in Papua New Guinea to ensure our supply.
Malaysia imports roughly 30-35 percent of its rice needs, devoting its land to higher value crops, but has gone into long-term supply contracts with Southeast Asian countries.
It matters little which agency handles these importations.
So Congress can quibble less about agencies it does not trust, let the Office of the President handle the importations with complete transparency, and let our legislators amend our procurement laws to allow for a longer view on staples and other strategic commodities.
In summation, a long view on our perennial rice supply problem should:
1. Gradually reduce per capita consumption through proper education on nutritional values of food, re-introducing white corn, kamote and saba bananas as staples;
2. Make an honest to goodness assessment of lands best suited for rice, and shifting to crops which can give farmers better incomes;
3. Increase the production of vegetables and legumes such that they become more affordable and thus reduce the over-consumption of rice, as has been done in other countries;
4. Fix our needed infrastructure, from real and not legislator-initiated farm-to-market roads, to better port facilities and other logistical requirements. Given our high inter-island shipping costs, isn’t it about time we do away with the Cabotage law?;
5. With IRRI and UPLB, not to mention a professional DOST, we should be able to produce high-yielding, flood resistant, less water-consuming varieties of palay that will give our farmers better yield and higher margins;
6. Invest in better storage and drying facilities and irrigation so as to cut down on waste and poor quality;
7. Program our medium and long-term import requirements to augment predictable production shortfalls, and allow government to buy on a long-term basis;
8. The RTA should be amended to allow government to import instead of relinquishing the entire rice importation to the private sector. It does not matter which agency, even the OP itself, be given such authority to import. The staple is so vital that it cannot be left entirely to the private sector.
9. But I do not agree with the return of commercial distribution by NFA, because it will just mean subsidizing politically motivated artificial pricing of the commodity. Let LGUs do their own versions of Kadiwa instead of the national government. Not only will the results be spotty as presently done; it will be more transparent.
10. Pass the National Land Use Law which has been languishing in Congress since 1990, and despite its mention as priority legislation in the president’s first SONA, nothing has moved in our Congress. This should rationalize land conversion and allow government, both on the local and national levels, to properly classify agricultural lands.
11. DA, Landbank and DAR should partner with the private sector in managing small plots, consolidating these into enough economies of scale, where the private sector will lend financial and managerial support to small farmers so as to be able to avail of better technologies in palay production with the same model being used for other food crops;
12. Finally, increase coverage of crop insurance through Landbank and subsidiaries, so as to minimize losses due to calamities.
These are some of our suggestions, honed mostly from the time I was head of the NFA, along with private sector experience in cultivation and marketing of agricultural produce (fruits) as well as our family businesses in the past on various aspects of the food value chain, from production to wholesaling.