ZIDOFA's OregenA & Fermin Adriano's Supermarketization Of Rice

Without a roadmap, you get lost. Now, while I can't find a Roadmap to the Rice Garden of Eden within PH Agriculture, not to worry. "Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost" – Erol Ozan.

Early this morning, Friday, 05 July 2019, I found a lost loose-leaf 74-page printout report at home, prepared by the Asia Rice Foundation, ARF, that there is a "National Rice Roadmap" that was presented 30 October 2018 at the headquarters of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development, PCAARRD, at Los Baños, Laguna.

I learn from the Foreword by Emil Q Javier, Vice Chair of ARF and Chair of Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines (CAMP), that the Rice Roadmap was drafted by a multi-agency panel as tasked by Secretary of Agriculture Emmanuel Piñol. Mr Javier says:

There was overwhelming support for the key targets, namely: 1) increasing average yield to six tons per hectare through more use of certified seeds and hybrids, and appropriate level of fertilizers, 2) reducing cost of producing palay to P8-P10 per kilogram, a big part by more mechanization, 3) reducing postharvest losses by 12%, with more drying facilities, 4) reducing marketing margins by P1.00 per kilogram of rice, and 5) assisting rice farmers and farm workers in low-priority provinces in the transition to open market.

Reflecting on his first 4 targets, Mr Javier says he sees a subtle "paradigm shift from rice self-sufficiency to raising farmers' incomes."

So, how good is the Rice Roadmap in raising farmers' incomes?

In her presentation of the Rice Roadmap, Flordeliza H Bordey, who is Deputy Executive Director for Research, Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice, says:

The industry Vision is a rice-secure Philippines. It is anchored on the societal goal, availability and affordability of food for all Filipinos. For rice, it means availability, affordability, and accessibility of high-quality and nutritious rice at all times.

In reaction, Leonardo Gonzales, former Agricultural Economist of IRRI, says:

The (Rice Roadmap) is very clear on the Public Sector role in terms of strategic targets, interventions and core support. However, it is still lacking in defining the role of the players of the rice industry… It should reflect the element of being a market-driven and private sector-led operational plan.

Note: "market-driven."

ADB Advisory Council member Fermin Adriano points out in the same roundtable discussion:

There is now the phenomenon of the "supermarketization" of the market.

Rice now supermarket-driven? Already, ZIDOFA knows that very well. ZIDOFA is the Zarraga Integrated Diversified Organic Farmers Association of Zarraga, Iloilo. OregenA is the organic rice grown and marketed by ZIDOFA in supermarkets in Iloilo City. (Images above are from the OregenA Facebook page.)

ZIDOFA's open secret is not simply that it is producing organic rice but it has a solid contract with every supermarket that pays the agreed-upon price and not what the supermarket dictates. Supermarketization is welcome! ZIDOFA calls it the "closed-loop value chain," each farmer's high income being assured. There are no traders involved, so:

For ZIDOFA rice, always the price is right!517