NFA urged to reduce dependence on imported rice

MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority (NFA) should not rely on rice imports and must play a bigger role in the procurement of palay (unmilled rice), according to the Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS).

The TFFS, an independent alliance of food security advocates, added that the NFA should also take a bigger role  in the distribution of rice in the local market instead of leaving the private sector the role in rice import and export.

The TFFS criticized the decision of the NFA to allow private companies to import up to 300,000 tons of rice this year.

Likewise, the TFFS was disappointed with the Department of Justice’s legal opinion that the NFA has the authority to export or to allow private businessmen to export fancy-rice varieties.

“Our experience with the oil industry deregulation shows the danger of giving the corporate private sector a stronger hand in the trade of basic commodities. The government was left powerless to deal with incessant oil price hikes and supply manipulation,” TFFS lead convenor Arze Glipo said. “This is already happening in the rice industry, but it is not too late to reverse the trend if much-needed reforms to protect the industry will be put in place. The rice crisis last year and the ongoing global crisis must serve as opportunities to reinstall measures that the country abandoned when it hopped into the globalization bandwagon,” Glipo argued.

The Department of Agriculture (DA), the TFFS continued, should allocate part of its 2009 budget of P42.6 million to buy at least 10 percent of the local rice harvest and to sell more rice to the public at prices competitive with the private traders.

Doing so, the TFFS said, would not only help boost local rice production, but also lessen the need for rice imports.

Glipo stressed the need to keep rice importation in government hands only and to prohibit rice exports even for fancy varieties only. “The government will be treading a precarious path once it allows foreign investors to take part in the development, production and export of fancy rice. This will take away land, water and other resources away from the production of rice and other food crops for domestic consumption,” Glipo warned.

The TFFS also highlighted the anomalies and inadequacies in the country’s palay procurement program, calling for reforms and reorganization in the NFA.

At present, the TFFS pointed out, the private sector already dominates the local rice trade — buying more than 80 percent of total rice production.

Furthermore, the TFFS observed, since 2002 the private sector has been allowed to import rice — a function previously reserved for the NFA.

The TFFS lamented that  despite a projected harvest of 17.5 million tons this year, the  NFA only plans to buy one million tons of rice from the local market while importing 1.8 million tons.