Our perennial rice problem

IS there – is there not – a rice shortage in the country today? Secretary of Agriculture Emmanuel Piñol said there is now a surplus of 2.7 million metric tons of locally produced rice, as a result of last year’s record palay production of 19.4 million metric tons, the biggest in history. At least 2.7 million tons of his record harvest remains to this day. And now, for the first three months of this year, the DA expects a harvest of 3.1 million metric tons – for a total of 5.8 million metric tons.

The National Food Authority (NFA), however, said it is supposed to have a buffer stock good for 15 days – 30 days during the lean season from July to September – but its stocks are fast dwindling and it has now stopped releasing to traders. The result is less NFA rice in the market.

But there is a lot of commercial rice in the market. As Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, said, it is only NFA stocks which are down. These are the low-priced stocks sought by the poorer folk. They are the stocks distributed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development for its Pantawid program.

Senator Villar said the NFA should be replenishing its stocks by buying rice from local farmers instead of importing all of it. She said the NFA could buy palay at low prices in places like Antique and Palawan. This would not only enable it to meet its required buffer stock but will also help increase the income of local farmers.

But the NFA prefers to buy from abroad – either from Thailand or Vietnam. Last week, President Duterte approved the NFA plan to import 250,000 tons after NFA Administrator Jason Aquino said the NFA serves around eight to ten million lowincome Filipinos and they are the ones who would suffer from an NFA shortage. NFA rice sells at to a kilo, while commercial rice costs

a kilo. There is no actual rice shortage in the country because Filipino farmers can now produce enough for the country, but their production costs are higher than those of Thai and Vietnam farmers and their rice harvests are thus costlier. Secretary Piñol also says there is an “anomalous food chain” with traders dictating the prices of rice they buy from farmers.

There are thus so many interests of so many sectors involved – the government, farmers, traders, poor consumers, and the majority who can afford to pay a little more for their rice. A long-range solution, perhaps, is to bring down our farmers’ cost of production so that there would be no more need to import cheap rice for the poor.

An even better goal would be increasing incomes through greater employment in a more active economy so there would no longer be need for special aid programs like the Pantawid dole-outs and low-priced NFA rice. to