When a Filipino starts dinner, the first thing he or she takes is not salad, entrees or soap, but rice. And rice has become a part of the psychological and cultural system of the Philippines, considered one of the biggest rice consumers of the world.
Whenever you go in Manila, you can find "eateries" where people are enjoying a plate of rice. McDonald's, KFC and Jollybee restaurants are providing rice as an inevitable part of the package, while rice stores, like other brands, are the most historically established institutions of the national capital and other major cities.
Over the past few weeks, however, soaring rice prices and looming decline in rice supply of world market have been forcing the government and people to worry about a nightmare of rice shortage and subsequent repercussions on the society as a whole, and considering measures to counter the threat.
The message was clearly delivered last week by Agricultural Secretary Arthur Yap, who suggested that fast food stores and other eating places in the country provide half cup rice, instead of universal one cup, which he said could be left half eaten and thus wasted.
Arthur said he does not mean to impose ration to the Filipinos, and only wanted to raise the public awareness that rice supply must be secured through all measures including economy use of the food.
Before that, Arthur sent a memorandum to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, saying that the nation is faced with serious security problems for food supply such as soaring rice price, reported suspension of rice export by Vietnam, hoarding of rice products in Thailand due to volatile market, as well as abnormal weather.
Thailand and Vietnam are two major rice suppliers for the Philippines, which was itself a rice exporter decades ago but now has plunged to the status of net importer.
Local media reports said Arroyo has decided to subsidize tens of millions of U.S. dollars to purchase rice worldwide to secure food stockage, which is reportedly running out in two months' time. Government officials said the Philippines intends to buy rice from Cambodia to make for insufficient food import.
During a visit to the northern vegetable producing center of Benguet during the Easter holiday, Arroyo also personally picked up vegetables and strawberries in the field, calling on local people to process these food to make relatively cheaper "vegetable noodle" to counter soaring rice and wheat prices.
Some non-governmental organizations have also expressed alarm over a possible rice supply crisis. An activist farmer group said a rice crisis is "imminent", particularly by the second half of 2008.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas organization said the government is considering import of an additional 500,000 metric tons of rice. It said while the Philippines registered a 6 percent growth in palay production in 2007 and will likely continue to keep the growth in the first half of this year, they are insufficient to meet increasing demand and to keep adequate supply.
In an editorial published on Sunday, the local daily "The Philippine Star" said food security has become a serious problem for the country due to rising prices, hoarding, reported diversion of subsidized rice for the poorest, and tightening global supplies.
The editorial said while agriculture remains one of the best performers in the economy in recent years, "indiscriminate development and conversion of agricultural lands for commercial, industrial or residential purposes, combined with poor irrigation and inadequate farming and marketing support have turned the country from a rice exporter to importer".
An economist said last week that the government is not investing enough in the agricultural sector to make it more productive.
Arsenio M. Balisacan, director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, told local daily Business Mirror that of the first quarter 6.9 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast this year, the government attributed only 0.8 percentage point to agriculture against 4.9 percentage points to the services sector and 1.7 percentage points to the industry sector.
Balisacan said agricultural labor productivity has been declining due to weak investments and absorption of farm workers in non-agricultural work, while benefits for farmers and job generation in farming remain not enough to stimulate production.
A Philippine central bank official said on Sunday the government may have to increase subsidies to the rice farming sector to keep prices of the country's most basic commodity from soaring in tandem with world prices.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo told local television the loss of arable lands for rice farming across the globe would continue to pressure stocks, leading to steadily higher prices of the commodity.
Guinigundo said National Food Authority has a standing lobby to increase subsidies on the price of rice at the farm gate and the retail market, although this could "dent" improving fiscal situation of the government. He also said the government was also prepared to access Southeast Asia's emergency reserves should it become necessary.
Some farmer groups have urged the government to raise rice production through "genuine agrarian reform", breaking up local rice cartel which is suspected to be raising prices for profits, stopping conversion of rice farms to non-agricultural uses and scraping deals that give land rights to foreigners.
Source:Xinhua
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