THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it has the necessary mechanisms in place to assist palay farmers who suffered billions of pesos in losses due to the onslaught of typhoons Pedring and Quiel.
Apart from the purchase of typhoon-damaged palay and the provision of seeds and loans, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said it is using satellite images for the flood mapping of rice areas in Isabela and Cagayan.
PhilRice said it is also conducting crop-damage assessment in all location-specific and technology demonstration sites nationwide to give more information to the DA. These initiatives, the agency said, are meant to help fast-track the recovery of farmers from the onslaught of the typhoons.
On Wednesday documents from the DA showed that unmilled rice damaged by six typhoons that ravaged the Philippines from June to October this year have reached 902,285 metric tons (MT).
In milled terms, rice lost to typhoons “Egay,” “Falcon,” “Juaning,” “Mina,” “Pedring” and “Quiel” reached 586,544 MT. The damage caused by the six typhoons alone slashed 9.13 percent of the total projected palay output of 9.88 MMT for July to December.
The biggest damage was caused by Typhoons Pedring and Quiel at 760,207 MT palay or an equivalent of 494,135 MT of milled rice. The two typhoons reduced paddy rice output for the second semester by 7.69 percent.
If the projected future damage of 494,008 MT of palay will be included in the computation, total unmilled rice lost could reach 1.396 MMT by the end of 2011. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said earlier that the country will be visited by three or four more typhoons until the end of the year.
By end of 2011, documents from the DA showed that the Philippines is projected to have a national rice inventory of 2.6 MMT, good for 76 days based on an average daily consumption of 31,000 MT.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, cautioned the national government against increasing rice imports.
“In the past government was heavily addicted to rice imports. Going back to this addiction is the wrong way to go,” said Pangilinan in a statement.
“We trust that President Aquino has sufficient information regarding the state of our rice supply to decide against additional rice imports for 2011. While importing rice ensures we have an adequate and steady supply of the commodity, it has also a direct impact on the price of rice in the local market should the supply be more than sufficient,” he stressed.
The solon noted that an oversupply of rice due to imports could slash the income of farmers who have suffered losses due to the typhoons.
“Too much rice is a disincentive for farmers to plant more rice when the farmgate prices are low. We do not want to add to the suffering of our farmers by flooding the market with rice imports,” said Pangilinan.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said the government would limit rice imports to 500,000 MT next year.
An interagency group on rice and corn is currently deliberating on the figures and would come out with a decision on the import figure for 2012 next month.
National Food Authority Administrator Angelito Banayo said the government is studying the possibility of increasing imports in view of the damage caused by typhoons Pedring and Quiel.
