CEBU CITY, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said on Tuesday the government will continue to import rice to ensure a steady supply even as the country heads towards self sufficiency in rice production.

Arroyo said it will take time to attain self-sufficiency in rice production, thus the country will need to continue filling its requirement of the staple grain from other countries.

"How long [before we can be] self sufficient? Five years, at the very least, from now," she told reporters in an interview here late Monday.

To boost production and improve distribution, Arroyo said the necessary infrastructure, such as irrigation and farm-to-market roads, should be in place while planting high-yielding varieties.

Arroyo on Monday had hinted of reducing subsidies to the National Food Administration, which imports rice abroad and sells this at a much reduced rate, to free up funds to boost production.

She acknowledged that problems in achieving self sufficiency lie in the archipelagic nature of the country, which she described as "rocky, mountainous, densely populated with relatively few freshwater" resources.

"For a long time it [has been] cheaper to buy rice than to produce rice...But if the world [market price of rice] is expensive anyway, [we] might as well [produce our own] and keep the money in the country," she said.

Arroyo said self sufficiency in rice production would be ideal in the long-run, but acknowledge that "we really cannot put the attention to long-run policy when we have a near-term situation that we need to address."

She said the Department of Agriculture will present the country master plan for rice production at a regional event to be sponsored by the International Rice Research Institute on May 2.