Just can’t wait to grow….

More on the rice crisis

Last March, when word of a possible crisis broke out, the government was swift to quash any speculations by saying that there was NO rice crisis. Proof of the absence of a crisis was the ABSENCE of long lines. As Agriculture secretary Art Yap so eloquently put it; “walang krisis kasi walang pila sa palengke”.

A week after that, people lined up for rice started to be more noticeable. We saw long lines of people in Bicol, then we started seeing long lines here in Metro Manila, along Commonwealth Avenue. So much for government’s reassurance that there wasn’t any crisis. Every time government tries to defuse a potentially volatile situation, the whole thing just blows up on its face.

It has been more than a month since the rice crisis started to become more apparent and more real than the government was willing to acknowledge.

I was particularly peeved by sight of fully-armed soldiers being dispatched to distribute rice. The image of armalite-carrying, fatigue-clad soldiers at NFA distribution centers is particularly disturbing. Either the government is conditioning the public of worse things to come, a virtual martial-law situation amidst a full-blown food crisis, or maybe the government simply has very low regard for poor people falling in line for rice, thinking that they would riot and overrun the NFA distribution centers and take away all the rice. I just think it’s wrong to have these armed-men distribute rice. For all its claims of economic normalcy, the government sure has a weird way of showing it. Armed-men on board military trucks distributing rice is anything but normal.

Next week we’ll have so-called Family Access Cards for poor people. Government has decided to pull-out hte P18.25 NFA rice form the markets because it thinks that even not-so-poor people are lining up to buy cheap rice. To prevent this from happening, they will be subjecting NFA rice to strict monitoring and distribution through these Access Cards.

Well, the reason why the not-so-poor are also lining up to buy cheap NFA rice is because they can no longer afford commercial rice at P34-40/kilo. Is it wrong for them to line up to buy cheap rice? Of course not. Times are getting harder and it is natural for people to look for cheaper rice. It’s not because they want to deprive others who are less fortunate.

Governent’s response should be to increase the volume of cheap rice available to an increasing number of people, the poor and even the diminished “middle-class”.

But in another move that highlights how bad the crisis has become, government has pulled NFA rice out of the markets and decided to issue Access Cards. First question we ask, who will be eligible to get Access Cards? Government says the poor. Who exactly are they? How many are they? How are they classified?

Government has a bad habit of understating the number of poor people in our country. Remember, as far as government is concerned, if you have something like P36 a day, that doesn’t qualify you as poor. Given the hocus-pocus when it comes to determining poverty threshold, we don’t know how many people will actually get Access Cards.

Second problem with this system is that it will rely on Barangays, or the village councils for distribution. It subjects the whole process to a lot of politics. Questions arise regarding possible abuses, of Baranggay officials favoring some over others, of rice being used as a political tool. He who controls the distribution of rice would be placed in an unusual position of great political influence. The Barangays would end up having the keys to a family’s next meal. Also, Barangays are not exempt from political influence coming from elsewhere, say, the mayor, councilors, congressmen and so on. Simply put, there’s going to be a lot of politics. There’s even the possibility of using the Access Cards as some twisted counter-insurgency weapon especially in the provinces. Suspected “NPA-sympathizers” may be deprived of Access Cards or forced to “denounce” their political affiliations before being granted the cards.

Speaking of Barangays, there was this one village chief in Commonwealth Avenue who decided to take advantage of the Access Cards by printing his own and selling them for P10 each. Very enterprising, but also very, very wrong. Gives you an idea how untenable the implementation of the cards is expected to be.

The worse is not yet over, as many analysts predict. Thai rice has hit $1000/ton level. Countries like Brazil have suspended the export of rice surplus as it braces for possible tight supply in the future. There are even talks of rice shortage in the US and Canada. There is tightening global supply, aggravated by speculation and flawed economic policies that include land-use conversion in favor of more “marketable crops”.

The global situation underscores the need for the Philippines to embark on a serious and long-term program of food self-reliance. There’s no other way out of the crisis. We are an agricultural country and we have what it takes to be self-reliant. But should be serious changes in the way agriculture is structured. The old feudal ways have to go. Land reform is a must. Government intervention and support is necessary. Agriculture for domestic consumption is not such a bad proposition. Government should stop looking the other way and address this matter head on.

The rice crisis

A lot has been said on the current rice crisis. For one thing, the government refuses to admit that there is one. On the other hand, prices have been going up. Even Jollibee (gasp) has raised prices of some of its items. The usual NFA rice costs P18.25/kilo but the NFA rice from the US costs P25/kilo. Wonder what they put in the US rice that makes it much more expensive? Oh yeah, US rice is subsidized by US government by the way , so if we keep importing subsidized rice, we’re in effect actually the ones paying for the subsidy. Galing di ba?

Here’s the gist of the problem.

There might not be enough domestically produced rice and imported rice to meet the needs of the people in the short and medium term. The Philippines is not 100% rice self-sufficient, and government will admit to this. That’s why we have resorted to the quick fix known as rice importation. But all is not well in the world market and the rice exporting countries are facing problems of their own. Vietnam for example is suffering from the effects of land conversion and their rice supply will become tight eventually. They would rather use it for their own consumption than export. Big problem for the Philippines if we can’t import enough rice to meet the demands of our people. Heck, even China needs to import rice now! That’s almost 1.3 billion rice-eating folks.

So what does the government do?

Like all previous problems, the government first denies that there is indeed a problem.

And they embark on several short term solutions that hopefully, when they take effect, would make the public forget that there ever was a problem to begin with.

One suggestion was to eat kamote instead of rice. Great. We’d like to see the bright boys in Malacanang take the lead in this. Kamote Republic, that’s what they want us to be.

Another suggestion was to provide half-servings of rice at fast food joints. Seems ok, but it’s really a non-solution to the more fundamental problem.

Still another suggestion was to import more rice and even lower the tariffs so that the selling price at the market wouldn’t be so high.

The government’s main tact in addressing the rice issue is to import more rice. And even if imports are getting more expensive, we can always lower tariffs, even is this would be bad for the economy. Tariffs are there to begin with, to protect domestic farmers from the dumping of imported rice. Lowering tariffs to lower import costs will artificially push down domestic rice prices and our local farmers will suffer. They’d be forced to sell their products at a much lower price to compete with the imported rice.

The crux of the matter is food self-sufficiency. Our capacity to produce has been hampered, nay, damaged severely, by globalization policies. Land-use conversion and export of raw materials in demand by the world market has threatened food security because less land is being used for planting rice. We’re planting exportable crops instead of planting the food we need to eat.

Now for the land that’s used for planting rice, there is very low productivity. Why? Because of the semi-feudal set up hinders any productivity. It mires farmers deep in debt and exploitation. There’s no incentive or no conditions to develop production, as is the case with any feudal set up.

With the backwardness of the agriculture set up of the country, and with the conditions of dominance of big land lords and comprador businesses, and with the absence of strong government intervention, agri production, including supply, is easily controlled by a few. It is vulnerable to control by a cartel.

We end up in a situation wherein there will always be a “shortage” because we’re not self reliant. And even with the limited supply that we have, it is still controlled by the cartel, thus the prices are high. Meanwhile,  the government prioritizes importation over domestic production.

The quick fix of importation might work for the next two months, but we ask, will this be enough for the long term? Wouldn’t it be wiser to develop domestic production so that at least we would be self-reliant when it comes to rice supply? Wouldn’t it be better to let loose the productive powers of our farmers by dismantling the feudal and semi-feudal set up in the countryside that has bound the farmers to a life of debt and poverty?

Alas, the government’s response, like in the problem of extrajudicial killings, has more to do with public relations than addressing the roots of the problem.

We were joking last night that the current situation has all the signs of the 80’s crisis. There’s the rice crisis. There’s the oil crisis. And there’s the return of Gabby Concepcion.  hehe.

Government should be very afraid of the people when the sh*t hits the fan. The people’s patience has been wearing thin.

I am reminded of an excerpt from an old Bob Marley song called “Them belly full but we’re hungry”.

Them belly full, but we hungry;
A hungry mob is a angry mob.
A rain a-fall, but the dirt it tough;
A yot a-yook, but d’ yood no ‘nough.

Cost of livin’ gets so high,
Rich and poor they start to cry:
Now the weak must get strong;
They say, “Oh, what a tribulation!”
Them belly full, but we hungry;
A hungry mob is a angry mob.
A rain a-fall, but the dirt it tough;
A pot a-yook, but d’ yood* no ‘nough.