MANILA, Philippines—Advocates of food sovereignty blamed the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Friday for the looming rice shortage in the country, saying its loan conditions had been pressuring the government to deregulate and privatize agriculture.

The Asia Pacific Network on Food Sovereignty (APNFS) said the ADB should be held liable for the mounting food insecurity in the Philippines and other developing countries for financing agricultural projects under daunting conditions.

These loan conditions continue to pressure the government to give up its quantitative restrictions on rice imports, a measure that protects the farm sector, APNFS convener Arze Glipo said at a press conference.

“We have analyzed why we are in a vulnerable situation, and the ADB should not escape its liability for the food crisis we are facing,” said Glipo.

Since its founding in 1966, ADB has financed agricultural projects anchored on poverty reduction. Glipo said, however, that these projects tended to weaken the farmers’ livelihood.

She cited the $175-million funding that the bank gave the Philippines to finance the Grain Sector Development Program in 2000.

Unrestricted rice importation

In making the loan, ADB pushed for privatization of the National Food Authority and called for unrestricted rice importation, Glipo said.

She said it required the lifting of quantitative restrictions on rice importation, to be replaced with tariffs on imported rice, and canceled the loan when the government failed to meet these conditions.

The government received only $30 million from the loan package representing the first tranche.

“The ADB, in offering loans to help impoverished countries, is [offering] just lip service,” Glipo said. “It has no intent to solve poverty in our country but to integrate our agriculture to the world market and to facilitate good business for rich capitalist countries.”

Top producer but...

Glipo pointed out that while the Philippines was among the world’s top rice producers it remained as a net importer of the grain.

She also said the Philippines had been rice-sufficient up to the early 1980s but eventually lost control of its rice importation when it subscribed to the structural adjustment measures of the International Monetary Fund.

“We are calling on the ADB to reform its conditions according to the needs of the country it would like to help,” Glipo said.