Better to spend P7 B yearly for rice sufficiency program than pay P27 B for imports
"At $287.50 per ton for 1.8 million tons of rice import this year, the country is spending P27 billion to P28 billion. And NFA (National Food Authority (NFA) is losing P10 billion to P11 billion in this program. Why don’t we take the solution of investing in a rice program similar to what others did?" Henry Lim Bon Liong, hybrid rice seed producer SL Agritech Corp. (SLAC), in an interview.
The NFA normally buys rice at a higher cost specially when it has to support farmers’ price during heavy harvests when price is collapsing. Despite higher price purchase, it has to sell rice at a low, affordable price particularly in depressed areas in order to support government’s social program, thereby losing substantially in subsidy.
If the Philippines is able to produce hybrid rice on at least 600,000 hectares, Lim said the country can be self-sufficient assuming an average of additional four metric tons (MT) per hectare is achieved which will produce an additional 2.4 million MT or 1.56 million when milled (at 65 percent recovery).
Despite such "simple arithmetic," government has not aggressively financed the hybrid rice program even after having taken a policy of promoting hybrid rice since 2001.
Frisco M. Malabanan, Department of Agriculture (DA) rice program coordinator, said the national government has released only a little more than P1 billion for the 2005 rice program.
The government’s investment in a rice program will have tremendous multiplier effect on the economy since farmers can earn a net income of P120,000 per hectare per season, if he harvests 14 to 16 MT per hectare. Assuming the farmer only harvests 10 MT per hectare and sells rice at P10 per kilo, he earns a gross of P100,000, less an input of 30,000, his net earnings will be P70,000, Lim said.
"This is what you plow back into the economy," Lim said.
And even if the farmer does not spend a lot on inputs specially now when fertilizer price is skyrocketing, Lim said hybrid rice has been proven to still yield higher than inbred rice.
"In Madagascar, they only have 1.5 tons per hectare yield. But when they planted our hybrid rice without fertilizer, they harvested six tons per hectare. That is because hybrid seeds have longer roots which take up more nutrients and have broader leaves for photosynthesis. Of course, you harvest higher if you have inputs and you take care of the farm," he said.
DA-attached Philippine Rice Research Institute earlier estimated that a P7 billion budget for an integrated rice program for two consecutive years will enable the Philippines to achieve a comfortable rice sufficiency rate given that an agro-industrial clustering program is implemented. This will synergize efforts of government’s technical assistance teams (agronomists, technicians) with the support of credit, irrigation, post harvest facilities, marketing systems, and seed production.
The government should rather spend P3 billion for 2006 and a separate P4 billion for 2007 for the hybrid rice and self-sufficiency program than spend unreasonably on rice imports which reached to P27 billion in 2005, giving benefits away to Filipino instead of to Vietnam farmers.
By MELODY M. AGUIBA
The NFA normally buys rice at a higher cost specially when it has to support farmers’ price during heavy harvests when price is collapsing. Despite higher price purchase, it has to sell rice at a low, affordable price particularly in depressed areas in order to support government’s social program, thereby losing substantially in subsidy.
If the Philippines is able to produce hybrid rice on at least 600,000 hectares, Lim said the country can be self-sufficient assuming an average of additional four metric tons (MT) per hectare is achieved which will produce an additional 2.4 million MT or 1.56 million when milled (at 65 percent recovery).
Despite such "simple arithmetic," government has not aggressively financed the hybrid rice program even after having taken a policy of promoting hybrid rice since 2001.
Frisco M. Malabanan, Department of Agriculture (DA) rice program coordinator, said the national government has released only a little more than P1 billion for the 2005 rice program.
The government’s investment in a rice program will have tremendous multiplier effect on the economy since farmers can earn a net income of P120,000 per hectare per season, if he harvests 14 to 16 MT per hectare. Assuming the farmer only harvests 10 MT per hectare and sells rice at P10 per kilo, he earns a gross of P100,000, less an input of 30,000, his net earnings will be P70,000, Lim said.
"This is what you plow back into the economy," Lim said.
And even if the farmer does not spend a lot on inputs specially now when fertilizer price is skyrocketing, Lim said hybrid rice has been proven to still yield higher than inbred rice.
"In Madagascar, they only have 1.5 tons per hectare yield. But when they planted our hybrid rice without fertilizer, they harvested six tons per hectare. That is because hybrid seeds have longer roots which take up more nutrients and have broader leaves for photosynthesis. Of course, you harvest higher if you have inputs and you take care of the farm," he said.
DA-attached Philippine Rice Research Institute earlier estimated that a P7 billion budget for an integrated rice program for two consecutive years will enable the Philippines to achieve a comfortable rice sufficiency rate given that an agro-industrial clustering program is implemented. This will synergize efforts of government’s technical assistance teams (agronomists, technicians) with the support of credit, irrigation, post harvest facilities, marketing systems, and seed production.
The government should rather spend P3 billion for 2006 and a separate P4 billion for 2007 for the hybrid rice and self-sufficiency program than spend unreasonably on rice imports which reached to P27 billion in 2005, giving benefits away to Filipino instead of to Vietnam farmers.
By MELODY M. AGUIBA
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