Why Is The Philippines The #1 Importer Of Rice In The World? No, It’s Not Why You Think. We Are Looking At The Problem From The Wrong End!

“A country smaller than Maryland is responsible (for) feed(ing) a big part of Europe. In 2023, the Netherlands became the world’s #2 food exporter, earning $133 billion through advanced farming that uses 90% less water and no pesticides.” (image from sorrycan’tfindmysourceanymore). Get the hint?

“The Philippines has replaced China as the world’s top rice importer, a report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said. According to the 2023 Grain: World Markets and Trade report, the Philippines will import 3.8 million metric tons (MT) of rice for trade year 2023 to 2024, while previous top importer China will only import around 3.5 MT (Adrian Parungao, “PH Replaces China As World’s Top Rice Importer,” 14 Sept 2023, globalnation.inquirer.net).

I repeat: PH imported 1 M metric tons more of rice in 2022-23 than behemoth Red China! We Filipinos must be doing something wrong!

I am reading the 2025 article by Leister Jensen Lim titled “Why Does The Philippines Import Rice? A Solution To The Rice Shortage” academia.edu):

“This study examines the reasons behind the Philippines' reliance on rice imports despite having sufficient domestic production capabilities (my emphasis)…

“Capabilities” – that is to say, we Filipinos can produce enough rice for ourselves if we study the matter carefully.

Why is the Philippines the #1 rice importer in the world? According to IRRI, the answer is quite simple. Says Paul John Caña, Editor In Chief of Esquire Magazine (03 July 2024, esquiremag.ph):

“In 2023, the Philippines was named the world’s top rice importer, overtaking global behemoth China. According to Statista, which based its information on reports by the US Department of Agriculture, the Philippines imported 3.8 million metric tons (MMT) of rice in the 2022-2023 marketing year, compared to China’s 2.8 MMT.”

What?! We Filipinos are the #1 importers of rice in the world – despite the fact that UP Los Baños and IRRI are located in these islands and right next to each other! What’s the matter – UPLB and IRRI are competing against each other in science they cannot serve the single country they are located in? No, they are not competing – what we Filipinos have been doing is serving for 100 years the wrong science called Chemical Agriculture (CA) instead of Regenerative Agriculture (RA)!

Read the enlarged text in the above image:

“A country smaller than Maryland is responsible {of feeding) a big part of Europe. In 2023, the Netherlands became the world’s #2 food exporter, earning $133 million through advanced farming that uses 90% less water and no pesticides.”

As a Filipino, the last 7 words in the above quote are what interest me greatly: 10% water, 00% pesticides! That to me describes Regenerative Agriculture (RA), that which is commonly ignored by my alma mater UP Los Baños and the nearby International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)! If there are two of you ignorant of something, welcome company!?

Time for UP Los Baños and IRRI to regenerate themselves in their common science!@517