Production of palay and other crops went up 5.59 percent during the January-March quarter.

The second positive development was the formal agreement by the country’s governors to detail the agricultural workers and technicians in their respective provinces to the DA to help implement the Department’s five-harvest, rice self-sufficiency plan that is aimed at making the country 98percent sufficient in the staple by 2010.

As mandated by the Local Government Code, the agriculture and health services had been devolved to local government units (LGUs), thereby stripping the DA and Department of Health (DOH) of their respective corps of field people to carry out their programs at the barangay level.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap told the governors prior to the DA’s signing of such a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) last week with the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), that agriculture officials were like generals going to battle without foot soldiers in the absence of field people under the DA’s supervision to implement the five-harvest sufficiency program.

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Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), points out that the Philippines is doing well in overcoming the global food crisis. He noted that the Philippines, "relative to a number of countries, adopted technologies quite effectively and used them rather well," in boosting rice production.

Kevin Cleaver, assistant president for programmed management of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (UN-IFAD), announced during his recent Manila visit that the domestic rice problem "could be handled pretty easily by the Philippines" in the immediate and long-term, given the measures that have been taken so far by President Arroyo.

The Philippines, unlike other developing countries, produces 90 percent of its food needs and, compared to rice exporter Thailand, actually averages higher in terms of palay yields. Our country is actually on better footing when it comes to dealing with the global food crisis, which is now sweeping the globe – according to a UN official – like a "silent tsunami."

This "silent tsunami," unleashed by costlier food, threatens 100 million people, says UN World Food Program head Josette Sheeran.

The UN has listed 36 countries that will need assistance for being "food insecure," and the Philippines is not on this list, thanks in large part to the intervention measures that the DA has been carrying out under its various Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) programs.

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Contrary to the critics’ charges, DA Secretary Arthur Yap is correct in saying that the domestic "rice price crisis" is rooted in a complex mix of external factors that are beyond the control of either Malacañang or the DA.

Rice from Thailand, the world’s top exporter, has more than doubled in price this year. The benchmark 100 percent Grade B Thai white rice was quoted at $1,030-$1,080 per ton last week, from just $383 last January.

Major food exporters including Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Cambodia have imposed curbs on food exports to secure supplies. Global supplies have tightened to the point that even in the US, its two biggest warehouse club operators – Costco and Sam’s Club of Wal-Mart – resorted last month to limiting the number of rice bags that their customers can buy from their stores.

Of course, there are other external problems such as the ever increasing cost of oil, which has jacked up the cost of everything from petrochemical fertilizers to the shipment of goods; the burgeoning food demand by newly affluent economies like China and India; stagnating global food production arising from freak weather patterns driven by climate change; the "food vs. fuel" issue in developed economies; and the switch by large investors to grain futures as a result of the financial slump triggered by the US mortgage crisis, which has all the more spiked prices of rice, corn, wheat, soybeans and other commodities.

The situation has come to a point that the UN and the World Bank have responded to this crisis by setting up a global food task force, which will consider, among other proposals, the establishment of a rapid financing facility for poor countries and doubling the amount of cash for agricultural credit in Africa over the next year to $800 million.

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Actually, we have enough rice stocks, with the expected 10 percent demand-supply gap already taken care of by the contracted imports by the NFA, of which 700,000 MT will have arrived by June, or just in time for the traditional July-September lean months prior to the wet or main harvest season.

The current contracted volume of the NFA is now close to 1.7 million MT, which is equivalent to 32 days worth of national buffer stocks or double the normal buffer level equivalent to just 15 days. Hence, the NFA will continue procuring rice, but this time either through government-to-government transactions or directly from local farmers this last month of the summer harvest season, not because of a supply shortfall, as claimed by critics, but just to maintain the 30-day buffer inventory to the end of the year

On top of these contracted import volumes, the DA is expecting the summer harvests to surpass 7 million MT, which is higher than last year’s dry crop yields of 6.7 million MT. So far, field reports gathered by the DA-Rice Action Center (DARAC) showed that the Department is on track in meeting this 7-million ton target as initial harvests have already reached 6.59 million MT as of May 16.

For the wet season, the DA is projecting a harvest of at least 10 million MT, thereby enabling the department to hit its 2008 target of 17.32 million MT.

The DA will prioritize the massive procurement of palay from local farmers as well as the increased production of hybrid seeds as part of its initial efforts under the Rice Self Sufficiency Plan.

Yap has ordered the NFA to continue its aggressive buying strategy following President Arroyo’s directive to maintain the palay support price of P17 a kilo until December to encourage farmers to plant more palay and let them cope with the steadily increasing cost of fertilizers and other farm inputs. The current support price is almost 50 percent more than the previous rate of P12 a kilo.

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On top of selling cheap rice, the government has also begun selling cheaper pan de sal and other bread products.

Affordably priced pan de sal and bread loaves ("Tasty" to most Filipinos), are now being sold in an initial 20 barangay bagsakans in Metro Manila.

A loaf of bread in these BBs sells for only P37 while pan de sal costs P12 for a pack of seven or just P1.71 apiece. In bakeries and other regular outlets, a loaf of bread now costs about P43 to P54 while pan de sal sells for P2.50 to P3.50 each.

The bread items sold in BBs use the standard wheat flour but the participating bakers’ groups in this pro-poor project under Philippine Association of Flour Millers (Pafmil) and the Chamber of Philippine Flour Millers (Champ), have agreed to sell their goods at a big discount in support of fresh government efforts to help ordinary consumers cope with rising food costs.

According to DA officials, Yap is meeting with bakers to discuss the possibility of expanding this project by way of using the cheaper squash and coco flour as alternatives or extenders in making pan de sal and bread loaves to be sold in these BBs.

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When I quit government service, I will most likely join an NGO whose pursuit is the conservation of environment. – Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes