Philippines: Squandered land for quick profit at root of rice shortage

Over the last decades, The Philippines has gone from being self sufficient in rice to becoming the biggest importer of the staple food in the Asian region. Whereas the rich, food-producing land not only sustained its own population, but produced adequate food to help out neighbouring countries as well, it now has become dependent on imported food and subject to the whim of international fluctuations in food prices and supply.

AsiaNews reported on April 9 that a joint action between the Catholic Church and the government to distribute rice to 30 of the 84 parishes in Manila archdiocese and later to extend the project across the whole country, was announced on April 5. It is being sold at 18.25 pesos ($3.50) a kilogramme.

The National Secretariate for Social Action of the bishops’ conference was called into the programme by the government because the secretary of agriculture, Arthur Yap, said that rice destined for the use of the poor "has been disappearing." In an attempt to counteract this, his department has been distributing it in one kilogramme bags instead of the usual 50.

Religious leaders believe that the nation still has the ability to provide adequate food for its population. Reverend Rex Reyes, from the National Council of Churches of The Philippines, said, "One must not simply blame nature for the rice crisis."

A councillor from Davao, Leo Avila, was quoted by MindaNews as saying on April 2, that "land conversion has wiped out roughly two million hectares of the country’s fully irrigated rice production areas, because they have been converted into areas for housing and factories, for commercial and industrial uses."

"Land conversion is the number one culprit of the rice crisis the country is facing right now," the city councillor said in a privileged speech in the chamber. "The country is better at producing rice than most Asian countries, but the indiscriminate conversion of agricultural lands into other uses has negated this distinct advantage."

Avila said that in turning the country into a food pauper from a food-glut nation, people have abused the land and failed to think ahead or understand the consequences. Decisions made for quick profits, without any thought to the long term consequences, or what price future generations will pay for the squander and selfishness of the past, has wrought economic havoc in the country.

Large swaths of Mindanao rice-growing land has been given over to the growing of cash crops, some of which have proven to be unsuitable for the soil and climate and required large amounts of chemical fertiliser in order to keep up production. This has resulted in much of the land loosing its ability to hold water and led to soil erosion, effectively leaving it useless for further agriculture.

Avila lamented that although the Davao region still had 24,000 hectares of rice paddies under cultivation, this is 700 hectares less than last year, as this land had been converted into banana plantations in Compostela Valley. He predicted a looming crisis, which he noted will develop out of what is, in reality, a failure in policy-making and policy administration.

He traced the looming crisis to the "unabated expansion of banana plantations, notably in Mindanao, at the expense of thousands of hectares of rice fields and the focus of the Department of Agriculture on biofuels."

The National Irrigation Administration claimed it has been discouraging farmers from converting their rice fields into banana plantations. However, Avila contested this, accusing it of showing a preference for crops like bananas, which yield a quick return.

Another councillor, Pilar Braga, was quoted by MindaNews as saying that the "total hectarage dedicated to rice farming had declined" due to conversion into residential, industrial and recreational purposes.

Braga lamented that although The Philippines produces twice as much rice as the region’s top exporter, Thailand, "We have become a major importer." She noted that although the National Food Authority in the region has repeatedly been denying there is a rice shortage, it should be upfront and tell the truth to the people.

She insisted that the people should know the exact situation, that there is a shortage and that explanations should be given about the extent to which this exists and the immediate and long term consequences for people who are already struggling to make ends meet.

[AsiaNews]