Rice self-sufficiency target moved to 2019

Saying the funds have yet to be made available, the Duterte administration has moved anew its target date for attaining self-sufficiency in rice production to 2019.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told reporters the Department of Agriculture (DA) would need to spend a hefty amount of P64 billion to achieve the national rice program goal over the next three years.

Of the amount, P31 billion has been earmarked for spending in 2017. This has been included in the DA’s amended budget proposal for next year.

“(Achieving rice self-sufficiency) will be dependent on whether Malacañang will act favorably on the new budget request I submitted,” he said. “It will take three years because the necessary funding is so large (we need to spread it out over a longer period).”

Piñol said he was renewing the push for rice self-sufficiency even as some economists in the Cabinet would argue for importation in view of the unpredictability of climate and risks to farm production.

He used the same argument in defending the policy of putting priority on production over importation, which the government had been forced to resort to in the past because of shortfalls in output.

“We have seen the negative impact of El Niño on our food supply,” Piñol said. “Who among the economic minds right now can assure me that El Niño would not hit the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia at the same time (in the near future)?”

He was referring to neighboring countries where the Philippines gets its rice.

“We might have money to import, but what if nobody would sell?” he asked. “The drought used to happen every six, seven years. Now, the interval is down to two or three years.”

Last Wednesday, the National Food Authority (NFA) said domestic prices of milled rice went down in the first and second quarters of 2016 compared to the same periods in 2015. The NFA attributed the decrease in prices to ample stocks in warehouses.