Aggie, rural economy problems as a whole beset the rice sector

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

The rice sector is beset by a microcosm of problems ailing agriculture and the rural economy as a whole that policy makers must understand in a comprehensive manner, according to Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan and Dr. Leocadio S. Sebastian, respective executive directors of SEARCA (Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture) and PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute).

In their book entitled “Securing Rice, Reducing Poverty: Challenges and Policy Directions,” they enumerated the following as ills of the rice sector: diminishing sources of agricultural productivity growth, slow growth of employment opportunities, and high population growth. 

The 352-page book was published jointly by SEARCA, PhilRice and the DA Bureau of Agricultural Research.

Balisacan and Sebastian noted that the Philippines must learn from the powerful lessons on agricultural growth and development in Asia in the past half-century. One of those lessons “has to do with enabling the rural poor through policy, investment, and institutional reforms that enhance the efficiency of domestic markets and provide improved access to technology, infrastructure and education. This enabling environment allows rural growth benefits to be broadly based, thereby enhancing overall nutrition, human capital development, and productivity and economic growth in medium to long term.”

The authors identified R&D, infrastructure development, and extension as the key factors to the growth of rice production.  They attributed 80 percent of the key factors to strengthened R&D (particularly to high quality and improved seeds, integrated crop management, and mechanization), improved rural infrastructure (particularly irrigation), and expanded extension activities to disseminate new knowledge and technologies.

They said the remaining 20 percent could come from overcoming the impact of environmental factors like typhoon and drought among others through appropriate use of crop management practices.  They added that maximizing the impact of technology and irrigation during the more favorable dry season can also contribute substantially to increased rice production.

They placed the estimated total investment in 2007 at P1.003 billion, which would rise slightly to P1.04 billion in 2015 based on year 2000 prices.

To develop yield-enhancing technologies and maximize their impact on farm production, the authors said, public rice R&D governance must be improved by enabling human resource incentives, maintaining and improving research facilities, setting clear R&D objectives and priorities, institutionalizing   impact assessment, and encouraging adaptive/participatory R&D.

They  added that rice extension programs must be overhauled from the top-down, centrally directed approach to one that is LGU-led, linked to the research systems, and focused on developing the technical and managerial capabilities of rice farmers to enable them to enable them to make informed production and market decisions.

On the other hand, support for irrigation development should focus more on the rehabilitation of existing systems rather than on construction of new large-scale irrigation systems, transfer of operation and maintenance to farmers’ organizations with government providing technical support, development of small scale systems, and promotion of crop diversification.

The authors stressed that the execution of policy reforms and programs has to be done properly and with sincerity.  

Overall, they noted that the key driver to the reforms they recommended is the internal realization that the reforms are for the benefit of the country and its citizens.

They concluded: “In the Philippine context, the rice problem is a domestically generated one; its solution requires nothing less than a concerted domestic effort to unshackle the policy and institutional bottlenecks preventing the rice sector from realizing its potentials. Fortunately, that effort is within our reach – even now.”

For the Philippines to solve its pressing problems on poverty and food insecurity, policy makers most likely need to read and regurgitate the book.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/harvest-time/)

 

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