MALACAÑANG yesterday said the Philippines
has already enough to cover its 10 percent supply gap and that
it is buying more rice only for "buffer stocks."
President Arroyo, in a speech during the
general assembly of the Federation of Philippine Industries,
said the country has concluded contracts with Thailand, Vietnam,
and other Asian countries for 1.2 million metric tons of rice,
"enough to cover the 10 percent differential which is our
production and consumption."
"So don’t be alarmed by today’s headlines,"
Arroyo said referring to news reports that Thailand, the world
largest rice exporter, is snubbing the Philippine tender on
Monday.
"If we’re to go into the market again, it’s
for buffer stocks. So that’s why it’s a take-it-or-leave-it
situation as far as NFA (National Food Authority) is concerned.
In other words, we can take it or we can leave it, depending on
the price," she said.
A senior official of Thailand’s Commerce
Ministry on Thursday said Thailand will not join the tender
because the Thai government will not endorse private exporters
as it is not allowed by law to do so. Under the rules for the
tender of 675,000 tons of rice, suppliers must either be a
government agency or be endorsed by the government, said Apiradi
Tantraporn, head of the ministry of foreign trade.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the NFA
has bought enough imported rice to meet domestic demand and
remaining tenders will go to boosting buffer stocks.
Yap’s comments signalled the NFA need not
accept all offers at the May 5 tender as prices have tripled
since the start of the year amid curbs by exporting nations.
"We are not gung-ho trying to buy the volume
suggested by the IAC (Inter-Agency Committee on rice and corn),"
Yap said in a speech at the headquarters of the International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
The IAC recommended the importation of 2.2
tons for 2008.
But he said the country would try to maintain
at least a 30-day inventory of stocks during the third quarter,
a traditionally lean period for rice supplies.
"We are going to enter July with 32 days
inventory so we will continue procuring to keep buffer stocks at
30 days," he said.
The Philippines, the world’s biggest rice
importer, has bought about 1.6 million tons of rice so far this
year in a flurry of tenders that helped propel world prices to
record highs.
Arroyo said government is managing the issue
"the best way possible" to prevent a crisis. She said the
Philippines is not in the Food and Agriculture Organization’s
list of 36 countries in a rice crisis.
The Department of Agriculture and the
International Rice Research Institute signed a five-year
memorandum of agreement or master plan to accelerate rice
production in the Philippines.
Arroyo witnessed the signing.
Dr. Robert Zeigler, IRRI director general,
said the MOA will enable the DA and IRRI to work more quickly so
that the Philippines would be rice self-sufficient. Yap said
self-sufficiency is an "imperative" considering the country’s
large population.
Yap said the Rice Self-Sufficiency Plan for
2008-2010 focuses on irrigation, technology extension services
and credit support for farmers but it includes both irrigated
and lowland areas.
He said the increase in program area from 1.4
million to 4 million hectares per year encompasses the entire
harvested rice lands of the Philippines.
Yap said the plan also calls for the
establishment of a national post-harvest program through the
distribution of community-based flatbed dryers and drying
centrals to address the more than 5 percent in drying losses
from annual harvests.
In terms of rice technology, today’s rice
farmers can access seeds that can help them produce an average
of 180 cavans per hectare during the dry season. He said farmers
would soon be able to access and breed seeds that are tolerant
to certain diseases, flooding, and dry spells.
He also said farm area would be strategically
mapped through a geographic information system for better
site-specific nutrient management and the employ of integrated
crop management system.
CLUSTER AREAS
The master plan will operate in compact
cluster areas of 40-100 hectares, using the irrigators’
association and the agrarian reform communities as nucleus
areas. The focus would be on 44 provinces for irrigated areas
and 19 provinces for rain-fed areas.
"It is our prayer that someday soon, we will
see the day when bountiful and profitable harvest will assure
that Filipinos can eat as much rice as they please with enough
to share with the world," he said.
Yap has previously said the Philippines will have to keep
importing rice until at least 2011 because of years of
under-investment in farming which is only now being addressed.
– With Randy Nobleza and Reuters
