Stop relying on rice imports, govt told
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday urged the government to stop depending on rice imports and help improve farmers’ output and incomes instead.
According to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, such reliance results in rice smuggling, which has plunged some parts of the country, particularly Zamboanga City and the island-provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi—collectively called Zambasulta—into a rice crisis.
This crisis “is a dire warning of the fate that would befall on the Philippines if economic managers succeed in their proposal to just rely on imported rice and reduce government spending on the country’s rice-farming sector,” Piñol said in a statement.
For many years, residents in Zambasulta have relied on rice smuggled from Vietnam and Thailand through Sabah, Malaysia, he added.
While smuggled rice was sold in the market at prices lower than locally grown commercial ones, the official said “local officials hardly lifted a finger to stop the illegal activity.”
“In fact, there were reports that some local officials and their relatives were actually behind the smuggling operations, which deprived [the]government of revenues,” he added.
His statement comes after the National Food Authortiy (NFA) secured 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to boost its stocks. Half of the volume came from Vietnam and Thailand through a government-to-government deal, and the rest through private sector-led importation.
The country’s current rice importation policy is the reason for the increasing number of smuggling cases, as it gives illegal rice imports from private traders the opportunity to enter the Philippines, Piñol claimed.
Republic Act 10845, or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016, considers agricultural smuggling, including rice worth P1 million and more, as economic sabotage—a non-bailable offense.
Relying on imports while reducing government expenditure on its rice program “would drive farmers away from their farm lands,” as they are pushed to abandon them and perform other agricultural activities, or lease their lands because there was “no way they could compete with the cheaper smuggled rice,” the Agriculture chief said.
“When this happens…rice-exporting countries could dictate the prices. The Philippines would end up paying more for imported rice, just like what happened in 2008,” he added.
The volume of rice traded in the world market every year is only 39-40 million MT, Piñol said. Of that volume, about 38 million MT are already committed to specific importing countries for this year.
“With the threat of climate change, exporting countries’ rice production could be affected by El Niño or floods.
When that happens, the volume of rice that they could export would be reduced,” he added.
Filipino rice farmers now produce 93 percent of the country’s total rice requirements, according to Piñol.
In 2017, the country harvested a record 19.28 million MT of the staple. This reduced the dependence on rice imports from more than 2 million MT in 2010 to about 600,000 to 800,000 MT this year.
DA aims to attain a local rice production level of 95 percent allowing only a 5-percent window for imported rice, to prevent the local market from being manipulated by rice traders.
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