This essay has been prompted by a Facebook sharing today,
Thursday, 15 April 2021 by retired but not-retiring UPLB Professor Teodoro Mendoza stating, “Am reposting
this, that means I fully agree.” The author of the straightforward notes shared,
Santiago R Obien (SRO), is the founding Executive Director of
PhilRice and today is National Technical Adviser on Rice; I reproduce SRO with
editing:
Let's Grow Our Own Rice, No
Matter The Cost
I have always held the
position that the Philippines must produce enough rice for all and keep a
reserve for at least a 6-month supply.
Our Target: No
reliance on imports for the staple food!
We have the technologies
to do it.
What is needed is decisiveness
on the part of government to invest.
We must produce rice
as our staple food regardless of cost. We do not produce rice to compete with
others – we do not sell rice, we don’t compete in the world market.
The Japanese cost of
rice production is 3-4 times ours, but still they produce rice to meet their
requirements. They don’t sell rice to other countries.
Let’s not bother
ourselves too much that our cost of production is high, provided we produce
enough for ourselves.
Forget competition. We
produce our rice regardless of the cost.
It will be more
expensive to import when the price goes up again above $1000 per ton! And again
there will be limited supply.
SRO’s recommendation seems reasonable to me. As to the cost
of going for rice self-sufficiency, it must not
be at the expense of other crops – here’s how we can shoot 2 birds with 1
stone:
The
Department of Agriculture (DA) comes up with a
national contest among volunteer provincial
government units (PGUs) to produce rice for national security. The DA arranges
for all assistances: inputs, machineries, loans, everything.
“PH, Rise Rice!”
is my name for the contest. After 2 seasons, the DA selects the Top 10 PGUs with
the least costs but highest individual yields – and requires the remaining 71 PGUs to follow the examples of the Top 10.
Rewards: Top 1 P10M, Top 2 P9M, Top 3 P8M, Top 4 P7M, Top 5 P6M, Top 6 P5M, Top 7 P4M, Top 8 P3M, Top 9 P2M, and Top 10 P1M. Consolation prizes, P500,000 for each losing PGU.
With “PH, Rise Rice!” we will out-compete the other countries in producing Masaganang Ani, Mataas Na Kita
(Bountiful Harvest, Bounteous Income).
With
Secretary of Agriculture William Dar
on top, with state colleges & universities assisting in the science-based
national production of rice, and with UP Los Baños as Program Leading
Institution, the Hearth will be a new and exciting journey in Philippine Agriculture.
Yes,
the best is yet to come!@517
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