CLARK FREEPORT – Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala expressed yesterday confidence that the country would jump from being the world’s number one rice importer to being self-sufficient and even rice exporter by 2013.
“There is a big chance of achieving self-sufficiency next year as our target irrigated areas are on track to be finished by the end of 2012 in addition to the simultaneous interventions we have implemented since the assumption of Pres. Aquino into power such as improving the quality of rice seeds, provision of post-harvest facilities and farm mechanization,” Alcala said in his keynote speech during National Rice Summit here last Wednesday.
Despite such expectation, Alcala said agencies under the Department of Agriculture (DA) are now running several campaigns that to “educate the public on the proper consumption of rice and encourage them to try other staples like corn.”
“What makes us different from the past administration is that we directly listen to the pleas of farmers and we think of long term solutions to our problem such as building dams and not simply be satisfied with importing rice.
No less than the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations cited our reforms,” he said.
Alcala said that the country might even export starting next year “some of our rice varieties specifically the basmati which is in demand in Middle East countries.”
Around 500 rice farming practitioners, researchers, scientists, advocates and enthusiasts from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao attended the National Rice Summit up to yesterday.
It was organized by the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology in partnership with DA, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Science and Technology, Philippine Rice Research Institute, National Irrigation Administration and Central Luzon State University.
The participants tackled the state of rice production in the country and identified factors affecting production as part of the effort of the government to achieve rice self sufficiency next year.
The topics discussed during the summit included global and national rice situations, effects of climate change on rice production, land use and conversion and the impact on rice sufficiency, production technology development on rice security, infrastructure development updates, state of farm mechanization and post harvest facilities, rice procurement and marketing assistance, credit and cooperative support, and extension and information services.
