A shortage in one of ‘Asia’s rice bowls’

When I was still in elementary school, volumes P and R of our family’s World Book encyclopedia were among the most used.  Its where we could find entries on both the Philippines and rice, and I was proud to know that our country was one of the world’s biggest rice-producers.

That is of course natural because we have a predominantly agrarian economy. It does help too that my father’s family in Bulacan are rice farmers and we always see sacks upon sacks of rice in our Tatang’s place.

It is thus a shock for me and perhaps for my contemporaries (those in their late 20s and early 30s) to witness a shortage in rice supply and the government’s pathetic attempt to cover up the situation.

The shortage is real — rice prices are up to levels we haven’t seen before in entire our lives. Perhaps only our lolos and lolas who lived through World War II can beat us with stories of rice prices at more absurd levels.

Even as we press government to do everything to satisfy national rice demand, I am looking forward to a sweeping review of government policies affecting rice production. Since Fidel Ramos’s time, we’ve been regaled with promises of prosperity if we give up local rice production and depend heavily instead on what used to be cheap rice imports. Ramos’ Philippines 2000 bannered the calls for farmers to stop their calls for genuine agrarian reform,  to junk rice and corn production in favor of “cash crops” like asparagus (!), and to await new jobs from the investors that will come to deliver us from feudal penury.

Years into imperialist “globalization” — after doses upon doses of liberalization, deregulation and privatization — we now live amid a rice supply crisis. We cannot even feed our own people and we are hostaged by the reality that we depend on the world market for our national staple.

Never mind IRRI as farmers have long considered the agency as a foe. IRRI in fact is in a better lot compared to landless farmers, with the agency freely using Philippine soil to experiment and develop rice varieties that are most conducive to pesticides and fertilizers manufactured by multinational agrocorporations.

The irony does not end with a rice crisis right where IRRI is located. The irony starts with it and with the reality that our mostly landless poor peasants are denied the right and responsibility to cultivate agricultural land. Land reform is endlessly frustrated by stock options or land use conversions.

Now, in a 180-degree turnaround, the Arroyo government is parotting the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas’ call for a halt to land use conversions.

Also: If some decades back, Thais and Vietnamese go to the Philippines to study rice farming, we now import rice from them. We’ve given up on our food security as a nation.

Central Luzon used to be known as the country’s rice granary, but we now see the sad spectacle of the National Food Authority (a.k.a. Rice Importer Numero Uno but barat to Pinoy rice farmers) sending the region repacked one-kilo rice packets to mitigate the shortage.

I am all for saving rice, for half-servings of rice in fastfood restaurants, for price controls, and all emergency measures to save us from the rice shortage. But I do hope legislators will seize the moment to assess the adverse impact of unbridled globalization and revisit the urgent need to implement land reform.

Photo from Iyamh’s Multiply site.