Rice shortage: No end in sight
Sadly, instead of finding solutions, we always put the blame on typhoons and long droughts. These excuses have been used over the years. As if Thailand and Vietnam are not regularly visited by typhoons and long droughts as well. Remember, these rice exporting countries and us belong to the same hemisphere. In fact, just too close with each other. Therefore, our weather and climate are much the same. Yet, they are exporting.
Moreover, there is a huge concern looming on the horizon. Rice exports of these countries we traditionally imported the staple have significantly declined. Vietnam’s rice exports from 2011 to 2015 went down by 56.3 percent. Likewise, Thailand’s rice exports from 2011 to 2015 exports went down by 30.2 percent.
Apparently, therefore, even these rice-exporting countries will not be spared of this staple’s soaring prices. Importing countries though will feel the more severe impact as these rice-exporting countries will try to discourage exports to feed their own burgeoning population.
Sadly, alongside China (now the top importer), we are the third biggest importer with Nigeria in second. Iran and Indonesia placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Significantly, according to “world atlas”, these five top rice importers are responsible for about 30% of the total global trade.
However, before we get overwhelmed over this development or get used to it, we should ponder on what we’ve done right and what we did wrong. Lest we forget, we are an agricultural country. Unlike oil where the country isn’t that blessed, this is a problem that we can internally solve.
Self-sufficiency is the keyword. We can start this crusade by revisiting what we taught to the Thais when they were still our tutees. Lest we forget, we always bragged about training them. Didn’t we? We can, therefore, safely assume that we did everything right in teaching them.
Secondly, our lawmakers and government executives should provide clear guidelines on new initiatives that will, in any way, affect food production. For instance, the implementing guidelines of the biofuel act should strictly provide that proponents could not convert areas devoted to food production to this new initiative. While we have nothing against this program, we strongly feel that it is just so inappropriate to gain in one program and loss in another. In the end, we gain nothing. The same is true with building solar farms on arable lands.
Moreover, this government must also prohibit conversions of rice fields to housing subdivisions. While we recognize the acute need for decent shelter, developers can always opt for vertical developments like low-cost condominiums to address such need.
On the other hand, we may task the Department of Health to launch a vigorous educational campaign to promote corn as another staple our countrymen can shift to. It is not just cheap, it is so nutritious too.
True enough, for decades, we’ve been in this situation. We’ve never been a rice exporter. Worst, we’ve never been self-sufficient. This is a great insult to a country that bragged about training Thais on rice growing technologies and yet starved due to poor methodologies.
Absolutely, the solution is in our hands. Sadly, however, instead of holding on together to solve our common concerns, we (especially the politicians), for decades, tried to watch each other’s back for an opportunity to stab.