MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ goal of becoming a rice-exporting country by the end of the Duterte administration seems like a long shot, an official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.
Leo Cañeda, director of the Office of the Undersecretary for Operations at DA, said the possibility of the Philippines exporting rice appears to be out of the radar as of the moment.
“Not that we are talking about it already. It’s enough that we work hard to hit our rice self-sufficiency target first by 2019,” Cañeda told The STAR on the sidelines of a forum organized by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists Inc.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol has made public its goal of becoming a rice-exporting country, saying rice could be a potential export commodity that could allow the country to compete in the global market.
“That is if we lower cost of production and increase productivity to make us competitive in the rice market,” he said.
Cañeda emphasized that the DA is taking one step at a time and is focused on the goal of increasing the sector’s efficiency.
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“The goal is how we can increase our efficiency in the entire value chain so that the Philippine rice industry can be competitive and that we can support our own local needs,” he said.
“It (exporting) hasn’t figured yet in our discussions but if we get there why not? Whatever dual effects it will have, like being able to export, then it will be good,” Cañeda added.
While former Agriculture chief William Dar is optimistic about reaching the target in the next three years, he said the problem lies in sustainability.
“You can easily produce one million metric tons additionally because there are a lot of sources like reducing post harvest losses, using more machines and hybrids. But sustaining it, is it even possible?” Dar said.
“It will not be sustainable that’s why we need to diversify our Philippine agriculture and that is to invest more in high value agriculture,” he added.
Dar said the DA should support other elements like irrigation and accessible and affordable credit system to farmers in order to achieve the target.
Last year, palay (unhusked rice) production stood at 18.15 million metric tons (MT) and is expected to end the year with 17.91 million MT, down by 1.3 percent due to the lingering effects of the dry spell in the early part of 2016.
Harvest area may also go down by almost two percent to 4.58 million hectares by the end of the year.
By 2019, palay production is targeted to reach 21.6 million MT, thus, making the country rice self-sufficient.
“By 2017, we will see a ittle by little but steady increase in production until 2019 where we will be self sufficient in palay production already,” Caneda said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority sees palay production increasing by 12.27 percent to 4.42 million MT in the first quarter of next year.
The increment is seen to come from the expansion in harvest area and usage of high-yielding varieties of seeds.
