“We are eager to hear Poe’s platform for food security and rice self-sufficiency as this is a vital issue hounding the country. We all know that the present Aquino administration and Department of Agriculture under Secretary Proceso Alcala totally failed to achieve it,” Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap said in a statement yesterday.
Hicap said “Poe has yet to speak about her particular stand on agriculture and food security.”
Anakpawis urged Poe “to heed the Filipino farmers’ demand for the attainment of rice self-sufficiency through free land distribution; securing farmers’ tenure on lands; cessation or moratorium on the conversion of agricultural lands; abolition of irrigation fees; instutionalization of farm subsidies, post-harvest and marketing support.”
It also urged Poe to oppose liberalization of agriculture through pulling out of the sector from commitments to the World Trade Organization-Agreement on Agriculture (WTO-AoA) and other “unfair trade agreements leading to dumping of imported rice in the domestic market.”
Anakpawis belied Agriculture Sec. Alcala’s claim that the country is near to achieving rice self-sufficiency.
Hicap cited government data indicating that imported rice still comprised seven percent of the country’s supply, contrary to Alcala’s claim of 97 percent rice self- sufficiency.
He also noted studies showing that per capita rice consumption went down from 121.51 kilos in 2009 to 114.2 kilos in 2014 and that rice stocks have become more commercialized as the share of the National Food Authority (NFA) in the overall rice stocks went down from 37 percent to 12 percent, with the rest of the stocks being in the hands of the private sector.
“Under the Aquino administration, rice stocks are systematically being controlled by the private sector, which is a threat to food security as they are enabled to dictate the flow of supply and prices,” Hicap said.
