Our farmers need all the help we can give

Last week, my attention was focused on our growing rice problem which is the job of the National Food Authority (NFA), the government agency that ensures that our people have enough rice. We must remember that rice is the essential item that everybody eats, rich or poor alike in the metro area or faraway provinces in cities and barrios. Many of our citizens, especially the poor families out in the countryside who cannot afford to buy meat or fish, must have enough rice with a litter of “patis” or “toyo’ on the table or floor to survive. Many families eat only once a day. But today, many of our poor cannot even have the money to buy rice since prices keep going up every week. Even our own family as I am sure many middle income families, experience the hardship we endure.

This is the reason why I get very angry. I read or hear in the news about the large importation from rice-producing countries like Vietnam and Thailand that cannot be unloaded from foreign ships and stored in large warehouses where the rice stocks are kept until they are distributed throughout public markets in the country through middlemen, of course, who end up with tons of money and large mansions while the poor farmers end up with absolutely nothing.

What is infuriating is today merely 400,000 tons of imported rice have to be guaranteed and only after 12 days of fumigation after getting rid of weevils (bukbok) can it be released “safe for human consumption especially if the rice is washed before cooking. Senators have blamed the NFA for rice shortage and high prices. It’s the usual passing the blame due to the shortage.

When I was young I still remember the time when our country was self-sufficient in rice, a model for Southeast Asian neighbors, a good example for other nations. But then again we had a population of only 19 million right after the war. Today we have a population of 105 million which grows every year. Our biggest problem is poverty and the strict Roman Catholic Church which forbids birth control. No wonder we have families out in the provinces with eight to 14 children who could barely survive on a meager family budget.

In the fifties, the Philippines was considered by our agriculture-based neighbors good example of how to manage their own rice fields. This tribute led to the formation of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Laguna in 1960, a renowned world body where many of our Asian neighbors sent their citizens to study, research and learn how to produce and harvest rice at an optimum level. Many of our scientists discovered the so-called “miracle rice” in IRRI which was adopted by other rice producing countries thereby producing multiple harvests throughout the year. Somewhere down the line we lost this distinction when some of our big entrepreneurs converted wide tracts of agricultural lands into industrial sites for their business enterprise.

This led to farmlands (and forestland) being used for industrial and housing projects for a fast growing population. This resulted in large areas that were once devoted to agriculture turning out to be a haven for industry and other departments of the government. Thus, from being a rice producing country, we turned into an importer of rice, in the process spending millions of pesos in foreign exchange.

I still remember the time six years ago when President Benigno Aquino III promised he would regain our position as an exporter of rice during his administration. Well, it turned out full of empty promises. Then President Rodrigo Duterte has said at the start of his administration that agriculture remains one of his top priorities. It’s a pity that agriculture has not been given the attention it deserves in recent years. Duterte has promised to help enliven agriculture and also to remove the middlemen. Hopefully this will uplift our farmers’ lives and strengthen their livelihood. It is important that we all do what we can to help the President in this particular agenda. We will all benefit if the agriculture sector becomes strong and vibrant as it was once again. All of us will benefit in those golden years ahead.