Rice Self-Sufficiency Is Small Change – Food Security Is The Big Deal!

His paradigm shifted to the negative, Jasper Y Arcalas says in his latest report in BusinessMirror:"Rice Self-Sufficiency Rate Seen Dropping Further[1]." His story may be factual, but his assumption is frightfully wrong! 

Even if so – So what?!

Every single PH Secretary of Agriculture before William Dar/Manong Willie went after rice self-sufficiency – and of course they all failed. They did not know, or did not realize, that all the odds were against it. For one, PH has the highest cost of producing rice per kilo in the Asean:

PH P12/kilo, Thailand P8/kilo, and Vietnam P6/kilo – how can you compete when you cannot sell lower than your production cost?

How can you compete when
you are a good farmer but
you are a bad businessman?

More than 2 years ago, now PH #1 Farmer Manong Willie already saw the difference between food security and food sufficiency[2]. In his Manila Times column dated 27 October 2016, he noted that The Economist treated food security as the ability of a country to supply food for its population, notproduce it. And so Singapore was ranked as the most food secure in Asia! Manong Willie said, "And come to think of it  – Singapore imports more than 90 percent of its food needs."

Manong Willie noted that Thailand and Vietnam should have been ranked among the top food-secure nations "because they can produce more than enough rice for their populations." That is because rice is not the only food we need as a nation.

That is to say, you know bad economics if you
insist on food sufficiency as good economics.

So, if I may suggest, Mr Arcalas and/or the BusinessMirror should be coming out with a series of reports like "PH Food Security Rate Seen Rising Higher."

In the meantime, as I a science writer who is an agriculturist see it, PH farmers should be lowering their cost of producing rice for the market and at the same time growing food other than rice – all of which they can export and earn much more.

With the export earnings, we can then
import food for our people to eat.
That's called food security.
We cannot eat rice self-sufficiency!

And what does Manong Willie prescribe for food security?

Let us offer viable alternatives to help our poor farmers increase their incomes, giving them the purchasing power to afford and access quality and nutritious food, at all times. Growing high-value crops that have revenue potential  – such as palm oil, rubber, cacao, coffee, mango, pineapple, soybean, and cassava must be pursued with a clear roadmap and assured investment support. That way, farmers do not equate farming as a subsistence but (as) a business to grow and nurture.

In the inset image above, Manong Willie appears on the cover of the Ilocano magazine Bannawag, meaning dawn, a new morning. For their new mornings, what must dawn on our farmers is a business sense.

What our previous agriculture leaders – and reporters  –  lacked was a business sense. What goes around comes around!@517

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[1]https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/11/22/rice-self-sufficiency-rate-seen-dropping-further/?fbclid=IwAR0Qn
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[2]https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/10/27/business/columnists-business/food-security-vs-food-self-sufficiency/293498/