Farmers fail to benefit from record rice prices
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:05:00 05/09/2008
Filed Under: rice problem, Agriculture, Fertilisers
MANILA, Philippines—Trinidad Domingo has just harvested the rice from her modest farm in Central Luzon. With fertilizer and fuel prices skyrocketing, however, she may just have to sit out the next planting season.
Just like many small farmers in Asia, Domingo—who cultivates a two-hectare farm—has not reaped any benefits from the record prices being paid for her rice crop.
Instead, small farmers have found themselves saddled with rising fuel and fertilizer costs, and the diminishing returns that result from higher production costs.
He Changchui, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s regional representative for Asia, said fuel and fertilizer costs were the “main culprits driving up food prices.”
In Thailand alone, fertilizer prices have risen by 30 percent since last September, according to He.
“We are all feeling the pinch because what we earn simply isn’t enough to keep up with our costs,” the 56-year-old Domingo told Agence France Presse.
Domingo’s fellow farmers in Nueva Ecija province at first thought they could cash in on the supply crunch. The upbeat mood didn’t last long despite the fact that the price of rice had risen by 40 percent in two months and the government was scrambling to build a sizeable stockpile amid possible export caps from rice-producing neighbors.
Traders not buying
“The big traders didn’t want to buy anymore, fearing they would be accused of hoarding by the government,” Domingo said.
“Our farm inputs and production costs, including land preparation, rose faster than the selling price of our commodity . . . I’ve just harvested, but the government wants me to plant again this May when the first rains arrive, but I don’t know if I can,” she added.
The price of fertilizer has shot up with China recently jacking up export levies by more than 100 percent as other countries compete to stock up on the commodity for their own food security plans.
In the Philippines, where 20 percent of fertilizer supplies come from China, a bag of urea-based fertilizer has gone up by 30 percent to P1,700.
Urea is a crystalline substance that contains nitrogen, which is widely used on soil to produce better yields. About 60 percent of the country’s fertilizer needs are imported.
According to Domingo, she would have to spend around P50,000 for 12 bags of fertilizer, crude oil for machinery and water for irrigation.
“After all my trouble, I would probably just clear about P60,000 once I sell all my harvest,” she said.
Domingo would have earned almost double had prices of fuel and fertilizer remained constant.
Gov’t blamed
Florence Sevilla, an agribusiness specialist with the University of Asia and the Pacific, noted that sudden increases in food prices had also wreaked havoc among the planters.
“Farmers would not normally apply fertilizer when the cost is high, so production becomes low,” Sevilla said.
“Because they also use tractors and fuel, their costs have also markedly risen, and next to that the seeds and other (inputs),” she said.
Sevilla blamed the government for its failure to modernize the farming sector, including the proper redistribution of farmland under its agrarian reform program.
“The problem is that our farmers remain as small land stakeholders. They do not have the capacity to spend for production,” she said.
Jessica Cantos, of the Manila-based farmers advocacy group R1, said farmers would do well to hold on to some of their produce, otherwise they are likely to end up buying it at a higher price in the markets in the coming lean months.
Cantos said farmers may choose to go organic, stressing that there have been case studies showing that chemical-free farming produces better yields.
‘Grin and bear it’
“But then the question is, are there enough organic fertilizers to use,” she said.
Cantos said it was ironic that farmers were “getting the raw end of the deal” despite the good farmgate prices for their produce.
But for Domingo, who supports an extended family of more than 20 siblings, in-laws, nephews and nieces, comfort can be found in the land she tills.
“There was a time I only cleared P3,000 after harvest, but then I never pay for what I eat because I get it from my farm, and that is a blessing,” Domingo said.
“That is how hard it is being a farmer, but I don’t have any other choice except to grin and bear it,” she said.
Agence France-Presse
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