The country’s rice farmers will not become poorer because of the implementation of the rice trade liberalization law, or Republic Act 11203, which converted caps on imports into tariffs, according to the Kapisanan ng Magsasaka, Mangingisda at Manggagawa ng Pilipinas.
V.L. Sonny Domingo, the group’s chairman, said many rice farmers remain poor because of the bad policies implemented by the government after 1986.
“Rice farmers have always been poor and the real issue is not the rice tariffication. The issue is, why continue with the status quo for the last 32 years after the supposed Edsa Revolution, when they have become poorer than ever,” Domingo said in a statement sent to the BusinessMirror.
He noted that the government had failed to capitalize on the
chance to prepare farmers for competition with other foreign producers when it
imposed the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice after the Philippines joined
the World Trade Organization
in 1995.
“The QR with NFA was imposed to get the farmers ready for the rice liberalization by way of doubling their production and teaching them how to be cost effective and be competitive,” Domingo said.
“But how can they be competitive when they were only given dole outs, such as fertilizers and tractors, instead of capital to put up their own agri corporations and go into large-scale farming as a business?” he added.
What the Departments of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform should do, he said, is cluster farms to help farmers venture into commercial farming which can afford them economies of scale. Through block farming, farmers can eventually raise the funds they need to farm equipment such as tractors, transplanters and harvesters and postharvest facilities.
“Instead of organizing block farms, farmers were given huge candies in the form of tractors which were allowed to rot when these broke down. Also, many have incurred huge debts because they could not access farm credit,” he said in Filipino.
Domingo said the “vicious cycle of mendicancy” continues with their use of old technology in planting and harvesting rice.
He said the government should cluster farms and help planters form agri corporations that can employ technical and professional managers who can run their farming venture. Domingo also said the National Food Authority should be tapped to purchase rice from these cluster farms.
The rice trade liberalization law took effect on March 5. Farmers’ groups had opposed the measure, saying planters could lose their livelihood due to the influx of cheap rice imports.
Image credits: Bernand Testa
1 comment
Wrong! Rice farmers or growers are not poor, they just live a simple life. It is the farm hands that rice growers hire to cultivate, till and harvest rice who are poor. Rice farmers or growers need not show that they are rich. Owning the ricefields are already assets which can be converted to cash … if needed.