Entrepreneurial Farmer

Ambrosio R. Villorente

GMA Forgets The Farmers

Now the Philippines is reaping cereal shortage in view of her negligent to provide love and support to the Filipino farmers. Until today, the government continues to forget the role of Filipino farmers in the production of food for the Filipinos.
This shortage of rice and corn is actually felt, nevertheless, the government continues to claim there is enough supply of the staple food. Notwithstanding, the increasing market price of both corn and rice in the market, the tenant in Malacañang is still claiming of sufficient supply. She must tell the real status of the supply and demand situation of the staple Filipino food, rice.
While Sec. of Agriculture Arthur Yap is very much aware of the cereal shortage, his approach is to save whatever rice and corn are available. Yap urges the restaurants and hotels to serve rice of the quantity the clients can consume. He also challenged the Filipino households to cook rice or corn enough for the family and the family members to put rice on their plates the quantity they can eat. According to Sec Yap, some P25 million worth of rice or corn is being wasted daily which can be saved by cooking the quantity enough to consume.
It appears that the government has forgotten the Filipino farmers who are the real factor in farm production. So far, the solutions being resorted to mitigate rice shortage and price increases are: 1. to reduce consumption and losses, and 2. to import rice from abroad to cover the shortage.

Love The Farmers

If GMA and her administration loved the farmers as they loved the soldiers, this food shortage and increasing prices of rice could not happened. But GMA so loved the soldiers that she is well protected from going down her throne in Malacañang. Never mind if the Filipinos will starve.
According to Gen. Esperon, the Armed Forces of the Philippines is not even capable to depend the Spratly islands in case it is invaded. Even the ammunitions of the soldiers will not last in a one day shooting battle.
GMA forgot to provide just enough production support to motivate the farmers to produce more. In fact, money intended for the farmers were stolen.
If only our Filipino farmers will be provided with sufficient support in the provision of production inputs, the Philippines will not only be self sufficient in rice, it will also become rice exporter.
Rice is a hydro-phonic plant, that in order to grow and produce the desired quantity and quality of grains, it must be provided with enough water. Water must be provided from land preparation up to its ripening stage. All other investment in palay production will be damaged in the absence of water in all the stages of palay production.
To produce one (1) kilogram of palay, a farmer needs 5,000 kilograms of water. Seeds, fertilizers, labor and other investment will not be recovered in palay production if the rice crop is not provided with enough water. Without water, certified seeds will have abnormal growth, weeds will grow fast which will compete with rice plants in the consumption of plant food, the weeds will shade rice plants, hence deprive it of sunshine. Since rice crop grown with even less water is weak, it is susceptible to the attack of pests and diseases.
On the other hand, palay raised with enough water, it will yield high even without fertilizer. Weeds are prevented from growing with rice; plants are sturdy and therefore resistance to pests and diseases. Even if fertilizer is applied to rice crop which is not irrigated, fertilizer cannot be available to rice plants, hence weeds will consume the plant nutrients and grow faster than palay plant, therefore irrigation is a must in rice crop production.
For our policy makers in agriculture, make it a policy to construct irrigation system to double the present average rice production. It can even be tripled. If there is no water, recommend the change of crop from rice to other crops like vegetables, corn, fruit trees, coconuts or flowers and other potted plants.

Rice Policy

The present rice policy is highly bias to the consumers. This discourages the farmers to devote more time and effort to their rice production project. The margin of profit on the per unit area basis is highly insignificant compared to other crops. If only our rice farmers will take time to compute their cost of production and compare it with the value of their production output, they will understand their return of investment is almost nil.
Be that as it may, the Filipino rice farmers do not stop planting rice. However, they are growing old annually as well. They are becoming poor while the rice traders are growing rich. The young Filipinos prefer other jobs which are high paying and glamorous. Why go to the farm, do heavy jobs with less income and remain destitute? Our policy makers may re-examine the rice production and marketing industry to make it attractive to our people so they stay in the farm.
The government must prioritize the provision of efficient and effective irrigation system so that other factors of palay production will be efficient. The policy makers must review the present rice if not all agriculture policies with the view to institute reforms to make agriculture business fair and just among producers, traders and consumers. /MP