RICE SUPPLY SURPLUS, ANYONE?

RICE SUPPLY SURPLUS, ANYONE? In my own definition of food security, the Philippines should become a net exporter of surplus rice. In other words, our goal should not simply be rice sufficiency, but we must have more than enough, so much so that we could already afford to export what we could not consume locally. That status is what is being enjoyed by rice exporting countries such as Thailand. If they can do it, why can’t we? As it is now, we are measuring our food security in terms of the number of days that we have rice reserves in storage. That is a very sad reality, because we should really be measuring our rice reserves in terms of months, and not in terms of days. You might say that that is easier said than done, but if other countries have done it, why can’t we? The best way to start is to start counting the numbers. For example, if our goal is to have rice reserve for twelve months, how many hectares of irrigated farms do we need to maintain, based on how many harvests per year, for instance. We should start counting our hectarage of arable lands, before we can even start counting our projected harvest volumes. Assuming that there are not enough arable lands to use right now, then the government should study how some “developed” lands could be converted back into farmlands. Since this is also a matter of national security, we should act now. IKE SENERES/05-31-2024