Finally, a fund for rice farm modernization

THERE is a Rice Tariffication Law to ensure that there will be enough rice for consumers in the country. The rice will mostly come from abroad. The new rice law does away with the old system requiring importers to get permits from the National Food Authority (NFA). Now anyone can import rice upon payment of a tariff of 35 percent on rice imported from an ASEAN nation, 40 percent on rice purchased elsewhere.

Ultimately, however, the national goal is the development of the Philippine rice industry so that one day, we need not import rice as we do now, mostly from Vietnam and Thailand whose farmers are able to produce rice at much lower cost than Filipino farmers.

One reason for this is that the foreign farmers have much better resources, especially water from the giant Mekong river in that part of Southeast Asia. In contrast, most Filipino farmers have to rely on rainwater and can thus plant only during the rainy season. More important, they rely on traditional farm practices instead of the use of modern equipment such as tractors.

We thus welcome the announcement last week of the National Economic and Development Authority

(NEDA) that this year and for the next six years, the Philippine rice industry is guaranteed a 110-billion annual financial support provided by RA 11203 which established the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund .

Half of this fund – 15 billion annually – will be used to procure farm equipment such as tillers, tractors, seeders, irrigation pumps, harvesters, and threshers. These will be given as grants to eligible farmers, farm associations, and rice cooperatives.

The rest of the fund will be used as follows – 30 percent for the development and propagation of high-yielding rice varieties by the Philippine Rice Research Institute; 10 percent for credit at low interest rates through the Land Bank and the Development Bank of the Philippines; and 10 percent for skills training and technology transfer in farm schools nationwide.

We have long known that Filipino rice farmers have not been able to be as productive as other farmers in Southeast Asia, largely because they have not been able to make the shift from traditional to modern means of production. Finally, we have a definite program to meet this problem – an annual 110-billion fund most of which will be used to acquire tractors and other farm machines.