Grain of thought

“Perhaps the former Agri chief will be able to untangle the web that is trapping our rice farmers in a life of drudgery.

“The elder Marcos’ agricultural program ‘Masagana 99’ briefly transformed the Philippines into an exporter of rice by the early 1980s.

For those who emerged from the toughest parts of the pandemic thinking survival is the fittest, the word “hybrid” may mean something positive — a way to survive the circumstances of the time. Hybrid schooling, and hybrid work — these were adjustments made to the way people did things when Covid-19 hit. Now, it is generally accepted as an effective way of doing things, providing the same results or output under a different setup. Soon to go hybrid as well will be the country’s rice production, if President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has his way. This is a solution he sees fit to increase rice production in the country. The hybrid system, reports show, “has given 41 percent better yield than conventional inbred seeds” in the past two years alone. A joint study by the Department of Agriculture and local government units also found that hybrid farmers harvested “around seven to 15 metric tons per hectare compared to the average of 3.6 MT per hectare for inbred seeds.” Marcos recently met with SL Agritech Corp. officials and farmers from Central Luzon who said the hybrid system could yield the two-pronged benefit of higher incomes for farmers and rice sufficiency for the country.

Of course, the concept is nothing new to the President. The elder Marcos’ agricultural program “Masagana 99” briefly transformed the Philippines into an exporter of rice by the early 1980s instead of remaining a net importer of the grains that it was since the Spanish occupation. Some interesting points were raised in the UP College of Agriculture Class of 1960’s webinar series held in September 2020 as part of the UPLB 102nd Loyalty Day celebration. The event gathered “a panel of agriculturists, scientists, and personnel who were part of the “Masagana 99’s” initial implementation who discussed the agricultural program.”

Among them was former deputy implementer of the program Dr. Edgardo Quisumbing, who explained that “at its core, (Masagana

99) was an emergency program in response to the severe rice shortage due to pests and natural disasters occurring at the time.

It was, he added, “a technology package for farmers” developed by scientists and experts. Included in this package, he said, were “high-yielding rice varieties and low-cost pesticides and fertilizers, alongside a supervised credit scheme that enabled the farmers to purchase the said technology.” The scheme was not about increasing “the planting area,” but the “yield per hectare.” It was effective in solving the food shortage at the time, but with it came a set of challenges, including funding for the farmers and the issue of the pesticides’ effect on the environment. Yet were these enough reasons to upend the whole program?

The program was scrapped in 1984 because of an unsustainable loan program for farmers, which the current administration hopes to change with its own Masagana program, put forth by former Agriculture chief William Dar.

President Marcos initially welcomed the concept, which if implemented would address the rice production challenge similarly, but almost 50 years later. Perhaps the former Agri chief will be able to untangle the web that is trapping our rice farmers in a life of drudgery and the country in a never-ending cycle of importation.

What is keeping the Department of Agriculture from consolidating its data so that supply and demand would tally, first of all, and for local production to improve with better use of our country’s resources?

With a hybrid program under a much-improved “Masagana 150” plan, perhaps rice importation will soon be a thing of the past.