The group Bantay Bigas said that Pernia seemed to have “a distorted sense of food security” and that continuing rice importation would instead imperil the country’s food security.
Pernia has been named by Duterte as the incoming head of the National Economic Development Authority(NEDA).
In a statement, Cathy Estavillo, co-convenor of Bantay Bigas, noted that the Aquino administration’s rice self-sufficiency program was a “wrong policy “Continuous reliance on rice importation will in fact, compromise the country’s food security,” she said.
Estavillo is reacting to a statement made by Pernia, saying that the government’s rice self-sufficiency program was a “wrong policy” because it allowed significant rice importation.
“The Aquino government resorted to rice importation as a virtual policy rather than a measure of last resort. It also failed to fully implement the mandate of the National Food Authority (NFA),” she said.
“Aquino failed in providing appropriate funds for the food agency to procure its mandated 10 percent take on the country’s staple food production” Estavillo added.
In an interview with media, Pernia said food security could be achieved despite rice importation, even as he urged farmers to shift to other crops where the Philippines has a more “comparative advantage.”
“Rice self-sufficiency is neither obsolete nor unattainable. Rice self-sufficiency is the only way the country can ensure food security for the millions of Filipinos without relying on the unstable supply of rice in the world market,” Estavillo stressed.
The group also noted that “because of the reliance on importation, the government has been negligent in developing support infrastructure for agriculture, primarily the irrigation of the rest of the potential irrigable rice lands while it also allowed the conversion of prime agricultural lands.”
Bantay Bigas cited studies indicating that the total area harvested for palay went down to 4.656 million hectares in 2015 from 4.739 million hectares in 2014. Of the total 4.656 million hectares, only 3.33 million hectares are irrigated while 1.42 million hectares are rain-fed. The 3.33 million hectares irrigated paddies produced an estimated 13.9 million metric tons of palay or an average of 4.31 metric tons of palay per hectare.
“If only the government will develop the remaining 1.42 million hectares of rainfed rice lands, the country may be able to produce an estimated 6 million metric tons of additional rice,” Estavillo said.
“Our country can achieve rice self-sufficiency through the implementation of a genuine agrarian reform program that provides land to the tillers for free, complemented by support subsidies for capital, inputs as well as provision of adequate post-harvest facilities and agricultural infrastructure support especially irrigation,” Estavillo also said.
