It’s harvest time for rice. Here comes Rosendo So, Chair of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, Sinag, with the news that the best wholesale offers of farmgate prices for rice range from
To save the farmers from falling prices, Mr So “urged the Department of Agriculture to set aside P152 Billion to procure the expected 8 billion kilos of palay to be harvested this coming season at P19/kilo.”
The Secretary of Agriculture is William Dar, and I see that this calls for the Philippine version of “Science with a human face” that was his slogan at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, when he was Director General of ICRISAT. Today’s rice problem calls for “Policy with a human face” – I am sure Mr Dar will try to move people & processes to raise those P152 Billion to save our farmers. (image[1] from UPLB RDE)
But that is only the Beginning of the Solution. According to Cynthia Villegas-De Guia, Planning Officer and Assistant Head of Program Development at the Bureau of Agricultural Research, “The Philippine agriculture sector has always been weighed down by low productivity and high production costs, because it has long lagged in adopting (new) technology.”
Old technology: Two related reasons why PH rice farmers have low rice yields is that they transplant too many seedlings per hill, usually 2 to 3 – which then compete against each other for nutrients. And then the distance between hills is too close: Too many seedlings per area means very few tillers are formed, and it is the tillers that produce the panicles that produce the grains that the farmers want!
Still another very good reason for the high cost of rice production is that farmers borrow from usurers for inputs – a welcome source of funds, as these friendly people don’t ask too many questions!
Can PH farmers save themselves?
They can, and can earn much more from their labors as a result.
We help the farmers organize multipurpose cooperatives and, with funding assistance from the public/private sector, each coop puts up a warehouse or granary that serves as a depository for farm produce during harvest time, no rush to sell. Then farmers can borrow money from the coop against their deposited harvest at coop-friendly rates, not usurious. This is called warrantage.
ICRISAT was practicing warrantage in Africa with the farmers there when Mr Dar was Director General of ICRISAT. Warrantage is farmer guarantee that he does not have to sell his harvest immediately to raise money for pressing family needs. His harvest will be sold when the price is right!
If we have enough coops with their warehouses and warrantage, farmers will not fall into hard times because palay prices will not fall. In fact, the prices of rice will rise – and with them, the farmers!@517
[1]https://ovcre.uplb.edu.ph/press/features/item/501-seeing-from-space-the-future-of-philippine-agriculture
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