A grain of truth
HOW much rice do we need? So much that the President had to create a Cabinet position for Kiko Pangilinan, a former senator, so he could take charge of rice (along with sugar and coconut) as a commodity separate from other crops. Formerly under the Department of Agriculture, the National Food Authority is now exclusively the agency dedicated to rice security. Midway into the Aquino II administration, there were hallelujahs of “rice sufficiency” which, alas, turned out to be premature. We never stopped importing, hundreds of millions of tons at that, from our neighbors.
Not only importing but also allowing smugglers to fatten themselves all the way to the bank. Cost of production is between and in other ASEAN countries compared to our but irrigation is free in those places, compared to the two sacks of rice per harvest season that our farmers pay for the water to irrigate their farms.
Administration after administration, president after president has not solved the problems hounding our farmers. Their average age today is 65, compounded by the unwillingness of their heirs to go into a vocation that will once again bury them in debt and penury. Typhoons, global warming, climate change, infestation may be beyond our control, and just when mechanized farming seemed to be within reach as a possible solution, here comes the story of how two relatively well-off farmers in Nueva Ecija who could each afford a harvesting machine – in the vernacular “halimaw,” meaning monster-beast – were killed because the machine was seen as a curse that would deprive peasants of their livelihood.
Are our farms ready to compete in the ASEAN open market? Would an open market allow smugglers to come out in the open and trade without shame or guilt? Does it mean the end of NFA’s usefulness? NFA administrator Renan Dalisay: “Whatever happens, we’ll always need a buffer stock to see us through any emergency or disaster.”
As for how much to eat, Deepak Chopra says each meal need not be more than what you can hold in the cup of your palm.