Hybrid rice program pushed

Since 1985 and every year thereafter, the Philippines has been importing rice spending millions and millions of dollars and, in the process, subsidizing foreign farmers.

Viewed against this backdrop, the government’s efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in rice, will all go to naught if it will not stop importing the cereal, said former food minister Jesus T. Tanchanco Sr.

"For the past 20 years, the amount of money we have been spending for rice importations has been staggering. Ang kailangan ng ating pamahalaan ay ‘political will.’ Kung wala tayo rito, walang mangyayari sa tinatawag nating self-sufficiency program sa bigas," he said, adding that last year alone, the Philippines spent more P27 billion in rice imports.

Last Dec. 12, the National Food Authority (NFA) bought a total of 350,000 metric tons (MT) of rice from Vietnam and in February next month, it may tender, according to the agency, another 350,000 to 400,000 MT. This year, it is expected to import at least one million MT of rice to beep up the country’s cereal supply.

Tanchanco, who was also former NFA administrator, said if only the government will inject the much-needed capital to its hybrid rice program, "I am pretty sure in three to four years, we will not import rice anymore."

He said "we can make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice through the planting of hybrid rice seed variety such as the SL-8H which many of our farmers now are planting.

According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PRRI), farmers using certified seeds earned only P15,000 per hectare per crop which doubled to P30,000 per hectare per crop with the use of hybrid rice technology.

"Definitely, we cannot be dependent on foreign sources of rice. Taking the world supply of cereals for example, statistics show that of the total quantity of grains being produced by the whole world, only three percent is being traded. This means that should be a slight decrease in the world’s cereal production even by just four percent, many countries would be adversely affected," Tanchanco said.

"May pera nga tayo kung wala naman tayong mabibili. Nangyari ito sa ating noong 1972. We had all the money to import our requirement and we were even willing to buy at high prices, but we could not do so because even the traditional rice-exportying countries then withheld their exports because they also had their own supply problems," he said.

The Philippines, he said, serves as Asia’s (and perhaps the world’s) center for research on the best scientific methods of rice production. "Yet today, we find ourselves importing rice to such countries as Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam whose agriculturists were mostly graduates from our agricultural schools."

Tanchanco said farmgate prices of palay go down whenever the government imports rice. Importation drains our dollar reserves and discourages our farmers to produce more, he added.