SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ—The Philippines is actually doing better than its Asian neighbors in rice production but is saddled by drought, destructive typhoons, limited land, wastage and increased consumption by a rapidly increasing population, an official of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said.
“It is time we debunked (the) common notion that our country fares poorly (when compared) with other rice-producing countries,” PhilRice executive director Dr. Eufemio Rasco Jr. said, adding that Philippine rice scientists deserve more recognition for their achievements in the last 40 years.
The Inquirer sought Rasco’s views after President Aquino, in a speech read by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala during a PhilRice event last week, likened the country’s unremarkable performance in agriculture to a case of teachers not heeding the lessons they teach their pupils.
Teaching agriculture
The teachers, the President said, are several institutions in the Philippines known for excellence in teaching agriculture, including the International Rice Research Institute, the University of the Philippines at Los Baños and Central Luzon State University.
“It is noteworthy that we are acknowledged as teachers in the field of agriculture but we are not listening to our own lessons,” Mr. Aquino said.
As a result, he added, countries which learned from the Philippines have started exporting rice to the Philippines.
But Rasco took exception to “the common belief that our country is very poor in rice production, that’s why we are importing rice.”
Citing statistics and information in the Philippine Rice Industry Primer Series, published by PhilRice in 2011, Rasco said growth in rice production in the country more than doubled and even tripled since 1970.
Rice self-sufficiency
Rasco said the PhilRice primer was published as a guide to identify priority areas in research and development, and help attain and sustain rice self-sufficiency, reduce poverty and malnutrition, and achieve competitiveness in agricultural science and technology.
The PhilRice official cited destructive typhoons in recent years that hurt the country’s rice production, which peaked in 2008 at 16.82 million metric tons (MMT), three times more than its 1970 production of 5.32 MMT.
But rice harvest dropped in 2010 because of the severe drought brought about by El Niño and several typhoons in the fourth quarter of 2010, Rasco added.
The PhilRice primer also said that the area devoted to rice production in the Philippines is very small compared to that in other rice-producing countries in Asia.