ILOILO City – High production costs, limited earnings of farmers, unfriendly environmental factors and an apathetic government could spell the end of the country’s rice industry. Reason enough for the folk song “Planting rice is never fun”.

In the Philippines, rice is eaten two to three times every day. This is so, despite researches showing that the country’s terrain, soil type and climate are friendlier to growing root crops which is said to have been the staple food of ancient Filipinos. Filipinos today may try to subsist on root crops and other substitutes when rice is not available, but would crave for it at least once during the day.

It’s the same thing with other countries in Asia where, as US diplomat Christopher W. Runckel said, “more than 90% of the world’s rice is grown and consumed”. In fact, nearly 500 million tons of rice was consumed in Asia last year.

Not enough rice

Last year, Filipino farmers produced 188,458,192 bags of rice. Of these, about 196,921,250 bags were consumed and 12,249,783 went to animal feeds or wastage and other uses. This left the country with a total deficit of 28,464,325 bags.

In Iloilo province where the bulk of rice production in Western Visayas comes from, 25,166,297 bags were produced in 2004. About 18,399,750 bags were consumed, 1,131,365 were used as seeds and about 1,635,809 bags went to feeds and/or wastage. It left a surplus of 3,999,373 bags.

For the past five years (2000-2004), Western Visayas is the third top producer of rice in the whole country putting in 12.96% of the total rice production. Region 3 comes first with 18.73% and Region 2 with 13.74%.

But records at the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) in Lapuz, Lapaz district here registered two arrivals of imported rice from Vietnam this year – 120,288 bags in March 27, 2005 and 70,168 bags on August 12, 2005.

National Food Authority (NFA) – Region 6 manager Javier Lozada said, “We import rice only to provide for the shortage during the lean months”. He said the government imports rice because the country does not produce enough for its needs. This is why there is a constant lack even in provinces with surplus production like Iloilo.

“Iloilo often has surplus production but traders may receive a demand to transport rice to provinces like Negros and Cebu to cover their deficit. We abide by the principle of free trade,” said Mr. Lozada. Of the country’s 15 regions last year, only six had surplus production totaling 35,010,403 bags or 1.7 million metric tons. The rest had a total 63.5 million metric tons deficit. National Capital Region which is the country’s government and business center had a deficit of 1.6 metric tons or 32,404,700 bags.

Officials said this yearly deficit started in the late 1980’s -- even before Mt. Pinatubo erupted and left thousands of hectares of rice lands in the central Luzon provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac covered with lahar. Mr. Lozada said the government does not want a repeat of the situation in 1995 when people lined up NFA stations across the country for rations of rice.

Skewed policies, wrong priorities

But farmer Jun Provido who chairs the Regional Farmers Action Council (RFAC) that represents farmers groups in the management committee of the NFA, enumerated the following factors behind the constant decrease in rice production -- conversion of agricultural lands to commercial and residential uses, the drought that comes almost every year, regular typhoons and floods, and the skyrocketing prices of oil-based commercial fertilizers and pesticides.

“More than anything else, the government should invest in support services for agriculture – especially irrigation facilities – if rice farming is to survive,” he said. “The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) practically no longer provides irrigation services. It could not force us to pay our annual irrigation dues because we hardly get any water,” he added.

Iloilo has several river systems – 150 rivers and creeks are possible sources of irrigation water – but water has become scant, especially during the dry months of December to May.

Mr. Provido’s five-hectare farm is located at barangay Inagdangan in Zarraga town, about 25 kilometers north of Iloilo City, which is at the tail-end of the irrigation canal fed by the Jalaur River system, the province’s major source of irrigation water.

“My farm usually gets flooded because of too much water during the monsoon months of August to November, and becomes dry during the time when it badly needs water in the months of December and January,” he added.

Harvest for the first cropping usually falls on the months of September and October, and in January and February for the second cropping. Water supply needs to be regulated carefully during these periods. Heavy rains can spoil unstored palay or unmilled rice during harvest time in September and October. Poorly dried palay fetches a lower price. On the other hand, adequate water is necessary to sustain the growth and flowering of rice plants in the months of December to January so they can ripen well for harvesting.

Most of the time, too, inadequate water can spark off bloody disputes in the farming towns of Panay Island where Iloilo is located. The local media often report of shooting and hacking incidents over irrigation water in the rice fields of Iloilo, Antique, Aklan and Capiz.

Of Iloilo’s 43 towns, Mina and Pototan seem to be the only ones enjoying ample water supply because they are situated close to the diversion dams of the Suague National Irrigation System (NIS) and Jalaur NIS, respectively.

This situation led NFA’s Mr. Lozada to comment: “I wonder why so many people insist on planting rice when everything seems to be against it?”

He acknowledged the country’s climate and the absence of government support as major impediments to rice growing.

This was affirmed by a research staff at the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) who said that agriculture-related programs in the Provincial Development Plan are not being implemented because they get no funds from the provincial government.

“Why don’t they spend the money on agricultural support services instead of pouring every cent on rice importation?” she lamented, while also hinting at “other priorities” the provincial government is preoccupied with.

At the DA RFU6 Agribusiness Division, a young and idealistic staff who asked not to be identified said the government’s centralized and top-down approach in formulating and implementing programs in agriculture cause some problems in the field. “Programs coming from the central office are difficult to implement because most of the time, they are not adaptable to local conditions,” she said.

For example, the national hybrid rice program should be implemented only in adequately irrigated areas because hybrid rice demands a lot of water, she said.

Hybrid rice also needs a lot of capital. A sack or 50 kilos costs not less than P1,000 pesos and farmers cannot use as seeds the produce from their harvest. If they want to have higher production, they also have to use a lot of commercial fertilizers which are becoming more and more unaffordable. A sack of Urea -- a major source of nitrogen -- costs about P900 in Iloilo City, and higher in the interior towns. The amount is about P200 more expensive than two sacks of palay.

Traders are lucky

Rice trader Clemente Abordo of Januiay town was quick to say that consumers and the small rice producers should be happy because the government imports rice.

“By letting out imported rice and subsidized local rice in the market, the government has managed to stabilize the price of rice at P1,250 per sack, P59 per ganta or P25 per kilo (for the super white kind) during the height of the lean season last August. No government subsidy would have meant traders jacking up prices to as high as P1,500 per sack.” He said it is the law of supply and demand that determines prices.

The staff at the DA Agribusiness Division said people would always buy rice because they need to eat.

Added Mr. Abordo: “Consumers have the alternative to buy cheaper GMA rice at P18 per kilo from the NFA’s Bigasang Bayan.” GMA rice is actually imported rice for which the government spends about P9.50 per kilo as landed price.

But majority of consumers, at least in Leganes town (15 kilometers north of the city), still prefer local rice even if it costs more because “it does not smell”.

Mr. Abordo explained that the smell of imported rice is a result of the rice having been kept enclosed for a long period, like when it is shipped from its sources in Vietnam or Thailand to the Philippines which takes about a month.

“The rice is of good quality because the government also follows quality control standards,” he insisted. Traders like him, he said, would not buy imported rice if it smells. He said that the public still associates imported rice with the low quality kind the previous administration bought from abroad.

Another trader who also asked not to be named said the NFA is up to its neck running after grains retailers who repack imported rice and sell it at a higher price – say, P20 instead of the mandated P18 per kilo -- or mix it with local rice and sell at the regular price of P25 per kilo.

Traders have two ways of accessing imported rice. They either buy from registered farmers who receive an allocation of imported rice from the NFA or they directly bid for the rice allocated for traders. The pricing of rice before harvesting started this season was P900 per bag for NFA rice and P1,200 per bag for local rice.

No wonder therefore, local farmers complain of imported rice giving them unfair competition. Rice farming in the Philippines takes a lot of capital because of the high prices of farm inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

In Vietnam and Thailand where the country’s rice import comes from, both the government and the private sector provide adequate support in the capitalization, production, processing and marketing of rice.

In the Philippines at present, advocates of sustainable agriculture are stepping up their drive for local farmers to adopt natural farming methods in order to lower production costs and ensure safe and healthy food for their families. Natural farming involves the use of organic fertilizer and biological plant protection (BPP) agents instead of harmful chemicals. Farmers are also encouraged to plant different kinds of crops so they would have diverse sources of income.

In a traders’ conference August 27-28 in Bacolod City, NFA national administrator Gregorio Tan, Jr. announced that the government will stop importing rice starting September to December this year.

This, he said, is for the interest of local farmers who would be selling their rice harvest during this period. Out of dire need, small farmers are forced to sell their produce even at low prices.

Prices of palay went as high as P13.50 per kilo at the peak of the lean season last August. It could drop to as low as P6.50 during the harvest season. The NFA buys high quality palay (at 14 % moisture content) from registered farmers at P10 per kilo. But officials complain that the agency is losing because budget support from the government most often comes late, if it is not inadequate.

“What we do is borrow from financial institutions like Land Bank so we would have the money for our rice procurement and subsidy programs at the time farmers and consumers need them most,” an NFA official said.