Anatomy of the rice crisis (2): Still, no admission

I am amused that despite the very real possibility of a crisis in the supply and price of rice, government agriculture and trade officials still do not admit that the country is really in for a big, nasty problem. I am not surprised, however, for even President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo herself, remains unperturbed.

This week, the iron lady of Malacanang could only manage an acknowledgment that the Philippines is a “price-sensitive nation”. This meant all of anything but an admission of a crisis—the worst in decades—in the country’s staple food.

GMA’s palakpak boys can hurl at me the usual accusation of highlighting the negative and not accentuating the positive, of seeing the cup half-empty instead of seeing it half-full, but come on guys, we are talking here about rice, the commodity the lack of which is the most potent argument against the preposterous claim that the economy is well. Well, it is sick if there’s no rice on the table of Filipino families.

In Japan where rice sufficiency is treated as a symbol of national harmony and where the rice-producing sector serves as the barometer of economic stability, there could have been already a change in government if anything akin or similar to have hit the Philippines has happened. Thus, the Japanese rice agriculture is a highly-protected sector. Rice farmers there form one of the strongest and most influential lobby groups in Japan, for they could make or unmake their government.

But here in our benighted country, rice farmers occupy the bottom rung in the government’s list of favorites and are treated with contempt by those who sponsor industry-led national development. Don’t look far for proof. Just look at the agreement signed Thursday between agriculture secretary Arthur Yap and Xu Xuan Truong, Vietnam’s ambassador to the Philippines, which formalizes the purchase by Manila of 1.5 million metric tons of rice from Hanoi.

The import agreement was a repudiation—a slap on the face—of our rice farmers. It showed our inability to feed ourselves; it demonstrated our lack of capability to be self-reliant in food; and it exposed the illusion that the economy is strong. Talagang ramdam na ramdam na. Ramdam na ramdam na ang kagutuman at kahirapan sa bansa natin.

It is a shame that we are feeding our people with food produced by other countries. Well, it is alright if we import oil. We do not have enough of that resource. But rice? We can’t argue in the same breath that we do not have farms. We have plenty of rice lands. We could open up some more if we want to. But we don’t and we won’t. We don’t produce enough rice for ourselves simply because it is easier to buy than to produce. Rice production is the least of our priorities. And the truth is that, there is just no incentive for farmers to plant more rice.

The flak that the government has received because of the crisis has sent its officials to wax philosophical—not realistic or even practical about the matter. It has led them to play the blame game. Still, there was no admission.

“Rice importations were resorted to meet our consumption requirement, but this didn’t mean that our rice production was decreasing,” said Dr. Leocadio Sebastian, executive director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute.

“There’s scarcity of rice because of global warming and increased world demand but there is no shortage of the commodity for consumers in the country,” Macapagal Arroyo said.

“The country had enough rice but the population boom, unabated conversion of arable lands to other uses, and climate change were putting pressure on supply,” said Rex Estoperez, spokesperson of the National Food Authority.

OK. OK. You are all correct. Paqrtially. We can debate endlessly the cause or causes of this national malady, even blame detained Senator Antonio Trillanes for it (as Malacanang idiotically did last year when there was a spike in the price of cooking fuel), but that’s not the point. The point is that we are running short of rice to eat, so what do we do?

Eat camote. That’s what a talking senator who goes around introducing himself as Richard Gordon talked about last week. He is right. He should go ahead and start with himself. Eat camote, Mr. Gordon, so you will at least minimize the air you spew through your mouth because as we all know, camote increases the volume of air excreted elsewhere.

Import more rice. Anyway, that’s what we have been doing these past several decades. From 1999 to 2003, we imported an average of 800,000 metric tons per year. From 2004 to 2007, our imports went up to an average of 1.8 million metric tons annually. And this year alone, we will be importing about 2.1 million metric tons. That means a lot of money, of course, but we can’t help it. That’s the path of least resistance, something which the government is fond of walking through.

Or we can sit down and sort our priorities right. Say, we can jail a few economic saboteurs—some top officials of the NFA who are selling government stocks to commercial rice traders, as well as execute by drowning a few members of the rice cartel who hoard rice and create artificial rice shortages. We can also stop the DAR (abolish it outright!) from granting conversion permits to land speculators who are transforming viable rice and corn farms into golf courses and commercial real estate.

Or we can use the billions of pesos in NFA annual subsidies wisely. Say, buying the produce of rice farmers directly from their farms at prices that the rice cartel cannot match without straining their pockets bulging with ill-gotten profits. The fact of the moment is that the NFA uses its billions of public sector money in paying for its huge import bill, rather than buying at competitive prices from local farmers. Isn’t that a distorted, wasteful and unpatriotic policy?

Or we can consider somberly our population management policy. Ever minute, more and more Filipinos are born to families that have no opportunities to a better life. We Filipinos multiply like rabbits, at an average of 2.3 percent annually, without the corresponding increase in food resources, or jobs, or incomes.

The strain of a high population growth to our national capacity to adequately feed, house, and educate more people is daunting and real. This must be addressed by a forceful and sensible population program by a government with a spine and a moral ascendancy to govern. In this score, the present administration is a dismal failure, so we have to wait for 2010, but we can begin now, among ourselves.

Or we can modernize our rice agriculture by investing more in infrastructure and technologies. Why can’t the government repair an irrigation canal, or construct a farm-to-market road, or buy drying equipment, without dirty commissions? Why can’t it offer hybrid seeds and fertilizers at subsidized prices? There is no immorality in subsidies, particularly if it would alleviate hunger. Subsidies become immoral only if it favors a few at the expense of the many.

But first things first. The government should heed the suggestion of Sen. Mar Roxas, which has become the clamor of the people during these calamitous times, to admit that we have a problem; that we have a rice crisis and that we should all work together to lick it.

“Be truthful. Admit the rice crisis!” Do you know who said it? The rice farmers themselves.