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Monday, March 31, 2008
Davao to 'hoard' rice if shortage happens
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- The City Government of Davao will be forced to stop the flow of locally produced rice out of the city should the rice crisis happens, said Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
In his television program "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" Sunday, Duterte said his primary concern is to ensure food security for Dabawenyos.
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"Might as well control the flow of rice in and out of the country. Ako gyud pugngan ang bugas (I will stop the outflow). That simply means food security," Duterte said.
The mayor blames politics and corruption as among the many factors that contributed to the impending rice crisis. He cited the controversy over the multi-million-fertilizer program in 2004 where even urban areas received money for fertilizer purchase during the 2004 elections.
Duterte warned people who would take advantage of the crisis and especially those who would contribute to it. He said he will not hesitate in sacrificing their lives for the benefit and good of the majority.
The country has been jittery over news about an impending rice shortage made worse by continued reports of hoarding and government-procured rice intended to be sold at lower prices finding its way into the hands of unscrupulous commercial rice traders.
On the other hand, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has secured a P12 billion fund from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to support its current initiatives at stabilizing rice prices.
The new financing is seen to boost the production of the staple and other food crops.
The P12-billion credit facility is on top of the heightened initiatives by Malacanang and the DA to stabilize rice prices amid the sufficient domestic supply, which includes allowing the private sector to engage in rice imports, lowering tariffs on imports, and making the National Food Authority (NFA) engage in the direct or supervised selling not only of government-subsidized rice but of medium-priced varieties as well.
DA Undersecretary and National Agriculture and Fisheries Council (NAFC) director Bernie Fondevilla said of the P12 billion fund, about P5 billion will benefit farmers in the country's palay-growing areas.
The rest will go to livestock production, with P2.54 billion; high-value commercial crops (HVCCs), P2 billion; industrial crops like rubber and oil palms, P1.5 billion; fisheries, P700 million; and corn, P300 million.
Fondevilla said Landbank president and CEO Gilda Pico had assured the DA that the institution is "ready to extend more financial support if there is a big demand for credit assistance from qualified farmers' organizations such as cooperatives and from the small and medium enterprises sector."
Last year, Landbank released some P2.92 billion to help boost palay harvests and P210 million for corn production, which benefited more than 47,000 farmers nationwide.
According to Pico, Landbank released a total of P26.8 billion in loans for the agriculture sector last year with cumulative beneficiaries of more than 2.6 million.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap unveiled an array of measures to stabilize rice prices in the face of sufficient domestic supply.
Starting next month, he said, the NFA "will have a stronger presence in the market" through "supervised selling" not only of NFA-subsidized rice but also of medium-priced commercial varieties at P24 to P25 a kilo to help stabilize retail prices of the grain for low - and middle-income consumers alike.
The NFA will also start repacking rice and directly deliver them to accredited retail outlets instead of allowing traders to pick up stocks in NFA depots to prevent the diversion of government-subsidized rice to private warehouses.
Yap said the "supervised selling" by the NFA will be undertaken primarily in the country's 10 most hunger-prone provinces, to ensure that the government-subsidized rice stocks reach the intended beneficiaries instead of ending up in the hands of unscrupulous traders who may be in connivance with erring NFA employees.
Reassuring the public of an adequate rice supply in the market amid projected bumper palay harvests and adequate import volumes, the DA chief said it will expand areas planted to palay this wet season to 2.54 million hectares to sustain record-high rice yields and meet self-sufficiency targets for the staple in the medium and long term.
It is also pinpointing some 92,000 hectares for its quick turnaround (QTA) program, which involves the insertion of a third-cropping season in between the summer and wet or main planting seasons.
This QTA program, along with the expansion of wet season production sites to 2.54 million hectares this year will be complemented by massive infrastructure support in terms of more irrigation works and postharvest facilities, Yap said.(Sun.Star Davao/PNA/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Manila. (March 31, 2008 issue)
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