PhilRice Self Sufficiency Rice Plan

PhilRice develops plan for the country’s rice self-sufficiency program.

PhilRice, Nueva Ecija is advocating the Rice Science for Sustainable Human Development (S4D) battle cry, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has crafted its corporate plan for 2010-2013 and 2014-2020 to help farmers achieve holistic development.

“More than helping the country become rice-sufficient, PhilRice pursues a more aggressive development work for our farmers, addressing not just their yields, but all other equally important facets of their lives,” said Ronilo Beronio, PhilRice executive director.

Contextualized within the country’s national development goals, PhilRice will pursue the following in five to 10 years: attain and sustain rice self-sufficiency; reduce poverty and malnutrition; and achieve competitiveness in agricultural science and technology.

Beronio said that “it has come to pass that research and development (R&D) are combined as one where research is our main focus. Now, we have expanded the meaning of development to human development.”

To achieve the goal of helping attain and sustain rice self-sufficiency, PhilRice is set to accomplish the following, among others: develop next-generation inbred rice varieties with dry season yield potential of 12 tons per hectare (t/ha) and 14 t/ha, respectively; generate varieties that address climate change; commercially manufacture production and postproduction machines such as mechanical transplanter, precision seeder and reversible airflow dryer; and produce recommendations on nutrient management appropriate for drought, submergence and saline-prone environments.

Moreover, PhilRice aims to reduce poverty and malnutrition by 50 percent in location-specific technology development project sites. It also aims to alleviate the annual per-capita poverty threshold in rural areas. Specifically, PhilRice will generate hybrid and inbred varieties with pro-vitamin A, high in zinc and iron, and nutraceutical. Furthermore, rice-farming households will be trained to be entrepreneurs.

In realizing competitiveness in agricultural science and technology (S&T), the institute will create more dynamic staff development plans and will modernize its R&D facilities. Rice S&T education will also be promoted among the youth in the country.

By Business Mirror

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Better Food Crop Seeds Needed for Philippine Farmers

BPI challenged to develop ‘better-engineered’ food crops to help farmers vs climate change.

The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) was challenged to develop “better-engineered” food crops, including genetically modified ones, that could withstand the devastating effects of climate change.

BPI, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), has what Agriculture Sec. Arthur Yap calls a “critical” job of developing seeds that can withstand harsh weather patterns.

“Your job at BPI is critical. You have to move our farms to better-quality crops and that begins with seeds,” said Yap in a statement.

Yap called on the BPI to take advantage of the attention that the government and the world have given agriculture by spearheading programs that would open opportunities for small farmers to earn more and produce more food.

He cited the BPI’s achievements, which include working for the registration of 122 crop varieties with the National Seed Industry Council and substantially contributing to efforts aimed at making the Philippines one of the world’s leading sources of fruits and vegetables, including mangoes, bananas and asparagus via the establishment of, among others, a mango gene bank that contains 100 accessions of mango varieties and carabao strains for future breeding works.

The DA chief also cited the BPI’s initiatives in developing cheap, practical, and environmentally safe technologies to control the bugtok bacterial hard-puff disease affecting bananas and the crafting of genetically modified (GM) crop regulations and the biosafety regulatory framework on GM crops that is regarded as a model system in Asia.

The Philippines is already feeling the effects of climate change with the onslaught of a mild El Niño which threatens to destroy crucial food crops like palay and corn.

Under a mild El Niño, the DA estimates losses of 264,940 metric tons (MT) of rice worth close to P4 billion and 174,224 MT of corn valued at P2.26 billion.  The fisheries subsector could lose 21,181 MT of catch worth P1.27 billion, while losses in the high-value commercial crops (HVCCs) sector could reach 3.17 million MT valued at P583 million.

A severe dry spell could lead to losses of 816,372 MT of rice worth P12.24 billion; 440,429 MT of corn worth P5.2 billion; 42,362 MT of marine catch worth P2.54 billion; and 3.08 million MT of HVCCs worth 443 million.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration had reported that this year’s El Niño would likely be moderate, the DA noted.

As early as December last year, the DA had already created a task force to carry out its five-point program to raise crop production along with farmers’ incomes in the face of a looming El Niño attack that is expected to last till early this year.

The task force, which will implement the DA’s El Niño Mitigation Program, will focus on 23 “highly vulnerable” areas and 24 “moderately vulnerable” areas in the country.

The areas considered highly vulnerable to El Niño are Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Cavite, Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Capiz, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Zamboanga City, Sarangani and South Cotabato.

By Business Mirror

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Philippine Rice and the World Trade Organization

Extension of RP’s QR on Rice Under Review

The Philippine government is now evaluating the possibility of petitioning the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the extension of the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice which will expire in 2012.

An official of the Department of Agriculture privy to WTO matters said discussions on the matter among concerned government agencies will soon go into high gear.

“We have not made a decision on whether we will ask for an extension of the QR. [The QR extension] is currently being discussed,” said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The QR has allowed the Philippines to limit the volume of rice that can be imported by the government every year, preventing a possible influx of cheap rice imports.

In exchange for extending the QR until 2012, the Philippines agreed to increase its minimum access volume (MAV) for rice to 350,000 metric tons (MT) as a concession. The Philippines also reduced tariffs on rice to 40 percent, from 50 percent in 2007.

MAV refers to the minimum volume of farm produce allowed to enter into the Philippines at reduced tariffs.

The Philippines filed its intention to extend the QR on rice in March 2004 as it was set to expire in June 2005. Extensive negotiations for it followed, with Manila holding discussions with nine countries which signified their intention to negotiate the request.

Manila had to conduct bilateral negotiations with nine WTO members, namely, the US, China, India, Argentina, Pakistan, Egypt, Canada, Australia and Thailand.

The Philippines obtained formal approval from the WTO to extend the QR in December 2006.

The government pushed for the extension of the QR, citing the need to prepare Filipino farmers for international trade and to achieve rice self-sufficiency.

The Philippines had originally targeted to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2010. The government was forced to move its target to 2013 due to lack of funding and the challenges posed by climate change.

Meanwhile, Rice Watch Action Network (R1) called on the government not to consider scrapping the QR on rice by 2012. “The government’s target is to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2013. If the QR will be removed by 2012, it will pose significant problems to Filipino rice farmers,” said R1 lead convener Jessica Reyes-Cantos.

Cantos said government officials should consider a number of factors before they finally decide to liberalize rice trade. “For one, they have to consider the challenges posed by climate change. Also, they must examine its impact on the income of farmers,” she said.

The Philippines has become a major importer of rice in recent years. This year Manila is expected to import as much as 2.4 million metric tons of rice from various sources.

Manila is also in discussion with Thailand for the importation of around 300,000 MT of rice under the Asean Free-Trade Area scheme.

By Business Mirror

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Samar Rice Fields Need Irrigation

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Samar, the country’s third largest island, has 25 major rivers but its rice fields are thirsting for irrigation water.

Most of these rivers have never been tapped to irrigate rice fields, reason why rice productivity in the three Samar provinces – Samar, Northern Samar and Eastern Samar – has remained very low.

Compared to other provinces in Eastern Visayas — Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran — where 76 percent of irrigable lands already have irrigation facilities, only 21 percent of irrigable lands in Samar Island are irrigated.

Tito Asistol, 62, farmer and village chief of Barangay Patong, Calbiga, Samar, lamented that water from the Calbiga River just go to waste because it flows directly into the sea without being used for irrigation. Ironically, the river is just less than a 100 meters away from his rice fields.

According to Asistol, his around five hectares of rice field only yield from 10 cavans to 60 cavans per hectare. He added that the harvest could have been more than doubled if their village, located about three kilometers away from the Calbiga town proper, has an irrigation system.

Hundreds of hectares of rain-fed rice fields could be found in Barangay Patong and its nearby villages. In the absence of irrigation systems, these rice fields all depend on rainfall to be productive.

Calbiga Mayor Melchor Nacario said he had been pushing for years the installation of an irrigation system in his town. In fact, he added, there is already a feasibility study made years ago on the proposed irrigation project in Calbiga.

Nacario, president of the Samar chapter of the League of Municipalities, recalled that two years ago, while he was with a group traveling with the President to Shanghai, he had shown Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap the feasibility study.

“(Sec. Yap) made a note on the cover of the feasibility study to the National Irrigation Administration “to expedite the implementation of the project,” the mayor remembered.

Included in the feasibility study were 1,000 hectares of rice lands to be irrigated in Calbiga town and the nearby town of San Sebastian, Nacario said, adding that this project could also be expanded to the other nearby towns of Pinabacdao and Villareal.

He said the source of the irrigation system is the rapids along upstream Calbiga River. There would be no need for pumps because water would flow into the canals by gravity, he added.

Nacario said he had followed up the proposed project and that he was eventually assured last year by Sec. Yap that fund for the project would be included in the 2009 budget. But when the 2009 budget came out, he found out that fund for the proposed Calbiga irrigation project was not included, he added.

A national policy on irrigation projects implemented last year in the wake of a rice shortage had scuttled the hope of Calbiga farmers to have an irrigation system is year.

“The policy that President Arroyo has adopted is the recommendation of the IRRI (International Rice Research Institute), for us to be able to address the (rice) shortfall that we experienced last year,” said Mel Senen Sarmiento, chair of the Regional Development Council for Eastern Visayas, said in a recent interview.

Sarmiento, who is the incumbent mayor of Calbayog City, said that the recommendation was for government to prioritize the restoration or rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems.

“The President has acceded to the recommendation of the IRRI, to first prioritize the rehab of existing systems to increase our (rice) production,” Sarmiento said, adding that “the plan is, by 2010 onwards the new construction will follow.”

The RDC chair, however, said the irrigated rice lands in Samar Island would greatly help in the country’s rice production.

“In our study, if Samar would only be irrigated we can increase our (rice) production by an additional 1.6 million metric tons. (The country’s) shortfall last year was only 1.8 million MT. This means that if Samar (Island) would totally be irrigated the shortage would almost be addressed,” he said.

Meanwhile, NIA Regional Director Romeo Quiza said that although Calbiga did not receive funding for its irrigation project, some P500,000 has been earmarked this year for the detailed engineering survey and preparation of plans of the proposed Calbiga irrigation project, which the NIA would undertake.

Quiza also explained why many existing irrigation systems are found in Leyte while only a few are in Samar.

“Compared to Leyte, it is more expensive to develop an irrigation project in Samar,” he said, adding that quality sand and gravel had to be hauled from nearby Leyte because these construction materials are not available in Samar.

Another reason is that irrigation dams in Samar are usually constructed upstream, about 15 kilometers or more, thereby longer canals have to be built from the water source to the farms. “Because the rivers are navigable and deep there is salt intrusion into the river and we cannot use salty water for irrigation,” he explained.

Quiza said an irrigation project in Samar costs twice than in Leyte, where shallow rivers are used as irrigation water source.

According to Quiza, the repair or rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems would cost about P60,000 per hectare while the construction of a new one would cost from less than P100,000 (for pump irrigation type which also becomes expensive because of fuel cost) to P800,000 (for water impounding type of irrigation).

But despite the government’s policy on irrigation and the high cost of developing an irrigation system in Samar, the government has initially released P350 million this year for the Basey irrigation project in Basey, Samar.

The Basey project, which has been in the pipeline for about a decade now, covers a total of 3,600 hectares out of the potential 6,000 hectares in that town alone.

But what puzzled Mayor Nacario is that irrigation projects in Leyte are easily provided with funds by the government, even in areas without water.

“I find it ironic that here (in Eastern Visayas) there are irrigation systems that were funded with huge amounts, almost a billion pesos, but there was no water available. One example is Tanauan (town in Leyte) which has a good irrigation structure but no water. That’s what I am surprised,” the mayor of Calbiga said.

Leyte does not only produce more rice than Samar, its farmers are also better off than those in Samar where, because of poverty, some farmers still practice a crude farming method called “payatak.”

Irrigation is known for its significant poverty reducing impacts, but despite Samar Island’s potential as rice growing area its poor farmers have long been deprived of irrigation systems.

By Leyte Samar Daily Express

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