NFA rice stock vanishing, good for just 20 days

April 22, 2008

The National Food Authority (NFA) disclosed yesterday that its buffer stock of cheap rice for poor Filipinos, as of today, is good only for the next 20 days.

At a briefing of the members of the House committee on agriculture for the Congress to monitor the action taken by the government to address the looming rice crisis, NFA Deputy Administrator Ludovico Jarina said the NFA’s buffer stock was accounted at 659,400 metric tons which will be the cheap rice supply for the next 20 days.

Jarina added NFA is releasing 33,100 metric tons of rice for daily consumption.

But the NFA adminis-trator also told the congress-men that the government is expecting 426,000 metric tons of delivery which will be added to the present supply of rice.

When the congressmen asked what the NFA is doing to avert rice crisis, the agency said it already has recommended to the government to import at least 1.2 billion metric tons to augment the present supply, adding it has also allowed the importation of rice by private companies of about 600,000.

Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras, for his part, cited several causes of unabated price increase of rice, one of which was the increasing price in the world market.

He disclosed that from 2006 the price of rice was $240 per ton but it has tremendously increased in the first quarter of 2008 at $885 per ton.

Paras also blamed the failure on the release of the budget for Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) which is supposed to fund the irrigation system in the country.

According to Paras, under the AFMA,

a P6 billion budget every year was allocated for irrigation however, he said not a single centavo was released, which explains why irrigation remains a problem.

Sorsogon Rep. Sonny Escudero appealed to the Department of Agriculture and the NFA to issue accurate data on the rice stocks to

avoid panic buying.

Escudero believes that there is enough supply of rice as of the moment and what the NFA should implement is a long term program to avert a possible crisis in the future.

Paranaque Rep. Ed Zialcita also asked the NFA and DA to present a program to the Congress so it could craft a bill for better food and rice security.

Meanwhile, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, slammed a proposed Senate inquiry on the rice problem, and instead called for a headquarters agreement between the Philippines and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which she called “one of the world’s major engines to increased rice production, and one of the solutions to the global rice shortage.”

The senator told reporters that a proposed Senate inquiry into the impending global rice crisis would not be in aid of legislation, because IRRI has already been doing excellent work in rice technology.

“The rice problem is not merely national to the Philippines , or merely regional in Asia , but is a global problem because of population growth and climate change. Hence, senators advocating still another in a series of interminable Senate inquiries leading to dead ends, should call for a global inquiry in aid of United Nations legislation. That would ensure that they will appear on CNN, BBC, and other international news networks. Whether they will appear to the world as respectable senators or as stand up comics is problematic,” Santiago said.

“Running after rice hoarders and monopolies is the job of the police and NBI. Supporting IRRI and PhilRice is the job of the Senate,” she said.

But senators insisted on the need to inquire into the food supply crisis, disputing the assertion of Senator Santiago, saying that the probe should be a priority.

Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan said they will pursue the probe despite the objection posed by Santiago.

Pangilinan said there was no discussion on whether to continue or discontinue with their called investigation.

Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. contradicted Santiago’s assertion, saying that they can pursue the probe vis-à-vis deliberations on the country’s agreement concerning IRRI.

“We can tackle both at the same time. I’m hoping that the proper committee will take it up (the issue on rice crisis), at the soonest possible time,” he said in another interview.

Pimentel also disagreed with the claims of Santiago that a probe on the rice crisis would only engage the upper chamber in a telenovela of sorts, saying that they are not trying to act in front of the camera.

“We’re serious about it,” he added.

Sen. Pia Cayetano joined the clamor in the Senate for a probe on the rice crisis, saying that she also filed a resolution calling for an investigation on the shortage in particular of rice and other basic commodities.

“Over the break, I was reviewing our Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act. It included policies to modernize, to shift from basic to technologically based faming, to be self-sufficient. What happened to that? We passed this law 10 years ago, and I would like the resolution to include our oversight function to look into what happened to the implementation of this law. In fact it’s also tied into my committee on environment because this law also states that watershed should be preserved as long as DENR and the Department of Agriculture declare that it is needed for irrigation purposes,” she said. Charlie V. Manalo and Angie M. Rosales

Bookmark to: