OFWs help stabilize Phl's food security situation

MANILA, Philippines - Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have become a big plus factor in the stabilization of the country’s precarious food situation.

Although a big number (about 10 percent) of Filipinos (now almost 100 million) are abroad, food insufficiency, particularly in rice, still prevails.

OFWs have been hailed as “heroes” for sending a big chunk of their incomes to their families back home and are thus considerably helping keep the national economy afloat through their remittances (now reaching $20 billion a year).

Their being overseas is also negating the impact of food insufficiency as the country’s high population growth rate continues to outstrip food production.

Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (DA-BAS) records show that over the past 15 years, the country’s rice per capita consumption has steadily increased.

In 1995, per capita consumption was computed at 92.55 kilograms per year. It went up to 103.16 kg/year in 2000 and further up to 118.8 kg/year in 2005.

As of 2008, the figure had been pegged at 127.1 kg/year. This means that on the average a Filipino consumes more than 2.5 cavans of rice per year.

Assuming that only about a million OFWs are back (as a result of political turmoil in the Middle East and lately the earthquake-triggered tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan), this would mean that the Philippines should produce (read: import) 128,000 metric tons (MT) more of rice to feed the returning overseas workers.

Over the past 15 years, rice imports depicted a roller-coaster trend, with only 264,000 MT of the staple cereal imported in 1995. It shot to 867,000 MT in 1996 and soared to 2.17 million MT in 1996, a calamity-bludgeoned year.

Imports in 2000 considerably dropped to 834,000 MT following a bountiful harvest. But it went up again to 1.19 million MT in 2002 and further up to 1.82 million MT in 2005.

The latest’s BAS figure obtained by The STAR was 2.43 million MT in 2008.

Imports this year (2011) have been projected to be less than a million tons. There is a silver lining in the country’s rice landscape, though.

Over the past 15 years, production (in terms of milled rice) consistently increased except in 1998 when the country recorded only 5.59 million MT from the 6.89 million MT level in 1995.

But production shot up to 8.1 million MT in 2000 and 9.55 million MT in 2005.

During the 2006-2008 period, annual production of milled rice overshot the 10-million MT mark.

But a big blot in the country’s rice picture is the wasteful ways of eating the cereal by Filipinos.

Each Filipino wastes three tablespoons of cooked rice everyday, noted the DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

If Filipinos can do away with their mindless wastage of rice, the country can save as much as $210 million per year from rice imports, said PhilRice, the government agency created in 1985 to develop high-yielding varieties and cost-saving technologies so farmers can produce enough rice for all Filipinos.

“If rice is not wasted, import savings can reach up to P9.63 billion,” said Executive Director Ronilo Beronio, the third to serve as PhilRice’s top official. The first two were Dr. Santiago R. Obien and Dr. Leocadio Sebastian.

“This waste, on the aggregate scale, easily translates into 480,000 tons of raw rice per year,” Beronio added.

As part of the government’s campaign to save rice, PhilRice encourages Filipino households to cook rice just enough for the family and not to overwash it before cooking it to cut wastage and control loss of nutrients.

That the Philippines can become self-sufficient in rice again (the Aquino administration’s target year is 2013) can be realized if all the negative factors in the rice industry can be eliminated at the soonest possible time.

And perhaps there will be enough for returning OFWs.