High rice prices to last for sometime, warn experts

April 11, 2008

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) yesterday warned that rice prices were likely to keep rising for some time as production fails to keep up with soaring demand.

Commercial prices of the grain are currently pegged at between P30 and P40 a kilo while the government-subsidized rice costs P18.25 per kilo.

Reports said the price of rice has risen by as much as 70 percent during the past year, with increases accelerating in recent weeks.

According to analysts, higher prices could trigger unrest in the Philippines, following rioting in countries such as Haiti and Egypt.

“Longer term demand-supply imbalance is clearly indicated by depletion of stock that has been going on for years, the latest edition of the IRRI publication Rice Today quoted IRRI economist Sushil Pandey as saying.

“We have been consuming more than what we have been producing and research to increase rice productivity is needed to address this imbalance,” Pandey added.

The institute said it had convened a group of experts to draw up a list of what could be done to solve the crisis and they agreed that raising yields was the only long-term solution.

IRRI said the crisis was affecting both the urban poor as well as rice farmers who farm small plots that cannot produce enough even for their own family’s use.

“Although the current rising rice price was seen as beneficial for farmers who grow a reasonable surplus that they can sell on the market, poor farmers with small or no surplus and poor urban consumers will continue to lose out if the price continues to rise,” it added.

Manila, for its part, has urged Asian governments to hold talks on the sharply escalating cost of food.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap wants a ministerial-level meeting of Asian governments to discuss means to raise food production and provide interim food aid, IRRI said.

“We must address the plight of food-poor families in the countries most affected by the rice price crisis,” an IRRI statement quoted Yap as telling an IRRI board of trustees meeting this week.

Kevin Cleaver from the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development also met with President Arroyo to discuss implications of the food crisis in the country.

Cleaver said “in some 33 countries there is now civil disturbance, food riots caused by food shortages and higher prices. This is one of the subjects we discussed.”

He added people were suffering because the “price of rice and food has increased and we discussed a little bit what to do about that,” adding he and Mrs. Arroyo agreed a solution was to ramp up production.

Cleaver said the UN agency would finance a $66-million agricultural and rural development program for two of the poorest regions in the country.

Also, Malacañang admitted that declaring a state of emergency due to the rice problem could be an option.

Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez, in a text message, said this could materialize if the buffer stock of the National Food Authority (NFA) “goes beyond acceptable limit.”

Criticisms over the government’s “ostrich policy” on the rice crisis continue to pour. Sen. Manuel Roxas II slammed the Palace for its “knee-jerk” reactions to the rice crisis that have set off adverse effects on the rest of the food chain and that are stoking the emotions of the people.

“It is clear that the government doesn’t know what it is doing. Until now, the administration has not acknowledged that we do have a rice crisis which affects Filipino families across the nation,” he said, adding the prices of oil, rice and other food commodities are all inter-connected.

Meanwhile, Speaker Prospero Nograles said the NFA should come out with a cheap but safe and fool-proof mechanism which would put distinguishing physical characteristics to the government-subsidized NFA rice vis-a-vis the commercial varieties.

One proposal that came about was to put food coloring into the NFA rice to distinguish its grains from the commercial kind but Nograles said there are certain issues such as safety, longevity and preservation of quality which should be taken into account.

by: Benjamin B. Pulta, Charlie V. Manalo, Sherwin C. Olaes, Ben Gines Jr., Pat C. Santos and AFP

source: http://tribune.net.ph/headlines/20080412hed3.html

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