When 95% is better than 100%
he rice self-sufficiency debate continues to be in the limelight after President Duterte made light of the recent announcement of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Manuel Piñol that we could be self-sufficient in rice by 2020. Paradoxically, both are plausibly correct but both could also be wrong.
Secretary Piñol has reasons to be optimistic. Weather for rice growing had been favorable the past two years and the adoption of hybrid rice technology is spreading. Our national average palay yield is now at 4.15 tons per hectare and progressively increasing, albeit slowly. The modern inbred varieties developed by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhiRice) with proper fertilization easily produce 5–6 tons per hectare. The new rice hybrids promoted by the private seed companies produce 7–8 tons per hectare in farmers’ fields. The better rice farmers in Nueva Ecija routinely report 10 tons per hectare with hybrids.
Moreover, Secretary Piñol has another card in his sleeve. We can attain self-sufficiency in rice by moderating per capita consumption by substitution. If we aggressively raise availability of white corn grits, we will need less rice. And not only are white corn grits cheaper than rice, they are also more healthful. Corn grits have a lower glycemic index, potentially useful in slowing down the growing public health menace of diabetes.
However, we have yet to hear of progress, if any, of the DA revitalization program of the white corn sector in order to catch up with our very successful genetically modified (GM) yellow corn hybrid program for animal and fish feed.
President Duterte in making fun of Piñol’s rice self-sufficiency story has history to back him up. Except for the aberration in 1972–1973, we always had been short of rice. Our cost of producing palay is about per kilogram. We have to significantly bring that down to match Vietnam’s cost of about per kilogram, and Thailand’s per kilogram. With the phasing out of quantitative restrictions in the importation of rice in compliance with our covenant with our trading partners under the World Trade Organization (WTO), even with a tariff of 35%, these cheaper rices from Vietnam and Thailand will inevitably increasingly displace domestically produced rice.
This is both bad and good. Our rice farmers will suffer loss of income as the imported rice will depress farm gate prices of palay. The rest of the population however will benefit from lower rice retail prices. With inflation rearing its ugly head at 5%, over the 3-4% inflation rate projected by our economic managers, the temptation is great to immediately arrest inflation and calm the population by massively importing rice.
In order to compete with imported rice we should bring down the cost of producing palay to about per kilogram. This could be attained in two ways: first, by raising palay yields to 6 tons/hectare, and second, reducing the cost of labor in transplanting and labor in manual harvesting and threshing by wider deployment of rice combine machines.
Yields of 6 tons per hectare are easily attained by use of the recommended inbred varieties under irrigation and with proper fertilization. Rice hybrids produce much more especially in the dry season.
Transplanting of rice seedlings is very labor intensive. The alternative is by direct seeding or
Rice combines perform the harvesting and threshing operations simultaneously. These machines are expensive and are beyond the reach of most farmers. However, they are now widely used in Nueva Ecija and Isabela which demonstrate that they are economically feasible. It is now a matter of providing incentives and making it easier for enterprising farmers in the rest of the country to obtain loans to acquire these combines and become professional farm operations service providers.
The above strategy implies that the areas where we now grow rice less productively i.e. the rainfed lowland areas and the uplands will have to be partially withdrawn from rice production and diverted to other crops.
Thus, instead of 100% rice self-sufficiency, the more attainable and economically sensible target, ought to be, say 95%, as we are doing now. DA and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) Rice should do their arithmetic.
During the rainy season when the fields are partly flooded, the most ecologically sound crop to grow is rice. Unfortunately, this is also the time of the year when the typhoons come. But rice, provided it is hit by strong winds and flooded during the vegetative stage, could still recover, unlike most other crops.
After the rains stop, there is sufficient residual moisture in the soil profile to start a second crop. But without the assurance of water availability through irrigation, the productivity/profitability of the second crop is always problematic.
But the pleasant truth is there are many other crops more profitable to grow than rice such as pechay, mustard, mungbean, peanut, tomato, eggplant, ampalaya, chili pepper, sweet pepper, melons, squashes, etc.
Pechay and mustard are harvested in only 30 days. They can be sown directly into the rice stubbles immediately after the first rice crop when there is still plenty of soil moisture. It costs to raise a kilogram of pechay and mustard. Farm gate prices vary widely from to per kilogram. At 10 tons per hectare, the margin could be
to in 30 days. Much better than the to per hectare from rice after 120 days.
We have well-adapted high-yielding varieties of these different high value crops. Our farmers know how to grow then and will need little instruction and encouragement.
However, there are two provisions where government support/interventions are vitally needed: First, linking farmers to markets through better market information, establishment of properly situated farmers’ markets/bagsakans, and promotion of contract growing as a business model. And, second, provision of easily accessible credit so farmers can acquire shallow tube wells and pumps, and joint construction by the local government units and the Bureau of Soils and Water Management of communal reservoirs and small farm ponds.