Philippines urged to access Asean rice reserve

MANILA — Farmers and civil society groups called on Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to calibrate and carefully strategize rice importation so as not to sacrifice support for the farmers devastated by typhoons ‘Ondoy’ and ‘Pepeng’.

“While the government is setting its eyes on beefing up our rice supply in anticipation of a rice shortage next year, our rice farmers are facing losses that leave them very little hope they will earn enough this harvest and tide them over to the next planting season,” said Jessica Reyes-Cantos, Rice Watch and Action Network lead convenor.

R1 urged Secretary Yap to invoke the ASEAN emergency rice reserves mechanism to access rice from other ASEAN-member countries at relatively stable price.

“Government’s announcement to open 250,000 MT of rice for import bidding this October, allocating P6 billion pesos for this seems to have started another rice price speculation. Immediately, rice futures rose to its highest levels since January,” said Cantos.

R1 has been pushing for the activation of the ASEAN rice reserve mechanism since the height of the rice crisis in 2008. The group is lobbying for its inclusion in the agenda of the upcoming ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry meeting this coming November.

“I think it is about time the ASEAN puts food security in the forefront in the light of the calamities and devastation that has befallen the region. Indonesia recently got hit by a devastating earthquake about the same time as Pepeng and Ondoy wrought havoc in the country,” Cantos explained.

Cantos said with government’s very limited resources, a part of the allocation for rice importation can be used to buy whatever is left of the farmers’ palay harvest this month and subsidize the production input for the next planting season.

Trinidad Domingo, President of farmers group, Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK) urged the National Food Authority (NFA) to intensify palay buying at the farm gate, regardless of the quality of palay.

Domingo said they are anticipating the traders to offer very low buying price as most of the plants were submerged by the floods while some are in the early maturity stage.

“Sana’y bilhin ng NFA kahit basa ang palay sa P17 per kilo para makabawi naman kami. Dati-rati kasi, tuyo lang ang binibili nila sa halagang ‘yan. Karamihan sa mga magsasakang naapektuhan ay walang drying facilities. Paano sila makakapagpatuyo ng palay? (I hope the NFA will buy even wet palay at P17 per kilo to help us recover from the calamity. They used to buy only dry and ready-to-mill palay for that amount. Most of the affected farmers do not have drying facilities so how can they possibly dry their palay?),” said Domingo.

Cantos also called on the DA to subsidize the production input of affected farmers this coming planting season in November and December. “The DA can choose certified seeds, instead of higher priced-hybrid rice seeds so that more farmers will benefit from the government budget,” added Cantos.

Domingo said the farmers need at least P10,000 worth of production input and other land preparation requirements for every hectare of rice. The government reported damages in almost 100,000 hectares in Northern, Central and Southern Luzon, with no chance of recovery.

“The government needs at least P1 billion for this alone. How about the other farmers who were not equally devastated but are in dire need of government support?” Cantos lamented.

Canos and Domingo issued this statement during the World Food Day celebration on October 16, 2009.

R1 and PKKK urged the government to allocate at least P830 million from the 2010 budget for social protection to help the farmers cope and recover from the impact of extreme weather conditions due to global warming.

The government reported P7.032 billion worth of damages in agriculture and 438,096 hectares of rice lands were affected by ‘Ondoy’ and ‘Pepeng’.

The groups submitted to Congress its agriculture budget proposal, along with the other proposals of the Social Watch Philippines’ Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI).

The proposal focused on community-based and indigenous rain water collection through Small Water-Impounding Project (SWIP), appropriate extension work to increase the farmers’ resiliency against the vagaries of the weather, and direct soil fertilization to manage the deficiency in soil nutrients due to massive chemical fertilization and pesticide inputs. (PinoyPress)