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Written by Amado P Macasaet, Malaya

 

Lito Banayo, administrator of the National Food Authority, is beginning to think that there is a need for higher authorities to stop aiming for self-sufficiency in rice and instead use the land to produce high-value crops.

He explained to Malaya Business Insight in a sought interview that it has been proven that, apart from obvious government indifference to agriculture, the country cannot hope to be as efficient as the Indochinese countries, principally Vietnam and Cambodia, in producing the staple cereal.

The first advantage of these two countries is their having a flat land. On the other hand, a large part of the 300,000 square kilometer land area of the Philippines is mountainous.

Even more important than that, it so happens that the biggest source of irrigation water – the Pasig River – is in the heart of Metro Manila where life or livelihood does not depend on agriculture.

The Indochinese countries have the Mekong River that cuts a wide swath in their territories. The river is the principal reason these countries never have problems with water for irrigation or for fishery.

Also important to consider, according to Banayo, is the fact that these Asean nations are practically typhoon-free.

He said the Philippines could produce more rice if some Pilipino entrepreneurs could find the wisdom of leasing hundreds of thousands of hectares in Cambodia and bringing to that country the Filipino experts who learned rice technology from the University of the Philippines in Los Baños and from the International Rice Research Institute, also operating in that Laguna town. He said labor in Cambodia is dirt cheap at $45 a month or less than P2,000.

Banayo is simply saying that given the disadvantages of the Philippines in producing enough rice (made worse by the uncontrolled population growth), there should be wisdom in giving the farmers higher income by raising high-value crops instead of planting rice.

The farmers need income, he said. They cannot get it from rice. There might be a better chance by raising high-value crops, including vegetables, demand for which is partly filled with imports, mostly from China, Vietnam and Thailand.

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Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is a government corporate entity attached to the Department of Agriculture created through Executive Order 1061 on 5 November 1985 (as amended) to help develop high-yielding and cost-reducing technologies so farmers can produce enough rice for all Filipinos.

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Philippine Rice Research Institute