Conflicting Government Data Bare Gravity of Rice Shortage

Conflicting data from the Department of Agriculture (DA) expose the desperate attempts of the Arroyo government to conceal the gravity of the rice shortage, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said today.

Bayan noted that according to the DA, the average national rice consumption is 11.9 million metric tons (MT) per year. For 2008, the DA projects that the country could locally produce around 92 percent, or 10.95 million MT, of this volume. This means that importation should be about 950,000 MT to meet domestic consumption for 2008. But why is the DA targeting 2.4 million MT, or 1.45 million MT higher than the supply gap, of rice imports this year?

“It means that in reality, the DA expects that the country can supply only 80 percent, not 92 percent as claimed by the government, of its domestic rice consumption this year. The remaining 20 percent, not only eight percent, shall be filled up by rice imports”, said Arnold Padilla of Bayan’s public information department.

Padilla added that, “At such low level of self-sufficiency, the country is indeed facing a very precarious situation in its rice supply security given the very tight global supply”.

The group said that what aggravates the situation is that the Philippines relies on practically one country only, Vietnam, for its rice imports. “But Vietnam itself is facing serious problems in its own rice supply security”, Padilla observed. In 2006, for instance, the National Food Authority (NFA) procured more than 85 percent of its total importation from Vietnam. This year, the country hoped to get 1.5 million MT from Vietnam but it said it could only “commit” one million MT.

Vietnam needs to secure its own rice supply as it faces rapid contraction in its farmlands due to land use conversion, losing 125,000 hectares of rice fields in 2007 alone. It projects rice exportation to fall by one million MT per year and considers totally stopping exportation to protect its own food security.

“Thus, it is still unpredictable if Vietnam can deliver its rice commitment to the Philippines this year. Where will the country turn to? Thailand, the second biggest exporter of rice to the country is facing a similar predicament with Vietnam. China, our third largest source, now also relies on imports to meet its growing needs”, said Padilla.

Bayan has maintained that the best way the country can ensure its rice and food security is through self-reliant and self-sufficient production. But self-reliance and self-sufficiency have been rapidly eroded by globalization policies including land use and crop conversion, agriculture liberalization, NFA privatization, etc. “The country needs to reverse these policies now to protect our food security in the long-term and urgently because indicators show that the global rice supply situation will not improve soon”, Padilla pointed out.

Most importantly, the current rice crisis underscores the necessity of implementing a genuine agrarian reform program, which includes free land distribution and meaningful state support, to encourage Filipino farmers to produce food and other needs of the economy, the group said. #

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