Agri Econ 20, On NFA-BOC Campaign for Expensive Rice

For consumers, cheap is preferred to expensive, more is preferred to less, it's a no brainer. For many Filipinos, they want cheap rice. And cheap rice is readily available from our neighbors Vietnam and Thailand, and soon, Cambodia, Laos, possibly Myanmar.

Nature, not politics and governments, determines who has better resources for growing rice. (1) Rice land area, Thailand for instance has almost 3x that of PH's. (2) Exposure to strong typhoons, TH and VN get perhaps only 5 storms a year vs. PH's 20, of which half make actual landfalls and cause direct damages; (3) Irrigation, they have the huge Mekong River, Ton le sap river, others as they are in one big landmass, vs PH's archipelago.

If politics and populism is set aside, we should be better off, a lot better off, if we have free trade in rice. The National Food Authority (NFA)  should get out of its marketing function. Doing regulatory function should already keep their hands full of work.

A friend from UP and now NFA Administrator, Renan Dalisay, posted this photo yesterday in his fb wall with this note,

Hit the ground running with the new BOC Commisioner Bert Lina discussing how to tighten coordination with NFA to curb rice smuggling. ‪#‎nfatungosapagbabago ‪#‎bantaybigas ‪#‎sulongbigas

From right: Renan, Sec. Kiko Pangilinan, new BOC Commissioner Bert Lina, don't know the 4th guy. Posting this photo without Renan's permission but I think he won't mind, he believes in transparency and freedom of information by the public.

I commented at Renan's wall that the NFA and Sec, Kiko's offices should focus their energy to liberalize rice trading as rice prices in Thailand and Vietnam can be up to 1/2 of PH prices. They should institutionalize free trade of rice and not glorify expensive rice.

Am sure the BOC and NFA will protest the title of this paper, which is understandable. But I think they should also recognize that rice smuggling happens because there is huge demand for cheap rice. The current implicit policy of the PH government is to make cheap rice from  our neighbors become expensive via rice protectionism: rice import quota, rice tariff of up  to 50 percent I think, bureaucracies to get import license, etc. Then government turns around and subsidize expensive rice to make it "cheaper" and announce it to the public.

I am not defending smuggling of rice or other imported commodities. But I am not defending or supporting the government too in its rice protectionism policy. 

IRRI's Dr. Bruce Tolentino, other Filipino economists from PIDS, UPSE, etc. have shown the numbers that protected, expensive rice is wrong and anti-poor. Rice protectionism is a 1960s or earlier medieval policy that is continued and defended by the government and some NGOs until today. Why persist on that wrong policy? Why are rice consumers disempowered to choose and buy cheap rice?

Another thing, that huge NFA debt, about P155 billion as of March 2014 I think. The DOF, DBM and NEDA have already shown that such NFA debt is unsustainable, walang pera ang NFA to pay those debts, all it does is ask money from Congress every year while further building up the debt. Soon, that huge NFA debt will be passed on to the DOF, and DOF will ask for more taxes as the debt stock has increased by a huge amount, need more taxes to pay for principal + interest, annually.

NFA should get out of endless loss-making and passing that debt to all taxpayers someday. It is a lousy arrangement. NFA should stop subsidizing rice to make it "cheap" because cheap rice from our neighbors are readily available.

Administrator Renan, Sec. Kiko, other government agri officials, ibaba nyo na ang presyo ng bigas. Remove politics from rice trade. People will remember you. thank you.

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See also:
Agri Econ 15: Why do Thailand and Vietnam Produce More Rice than the PH?, January 27, 2015 
Agri Econ 16: Seeds for Mankind, February 27, 2015
Agri Econ 17: Why NFA Marketing Function Should be Removed,  February 28, 2015 
Agri Econ 18: Israel's Modern, High Tech Farming, March 17, 2015 

Agri Econ 19: Charcoal Supply and Demand, May 01, 2015

Agri Econ 15: Why do Thailand and Vietnam Produce More Rice than the PH?

The new Administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA) and a friend, fellow UP  alumni, Renan Dalisay, shared in his fb wall photos of his recent visit to IRRI including meeting IRRI Dep. Dir. General Bruce Tolentino. Then he added,

Like many of you, i could not resist asking why other countries like Vietnam and Thailand, who learned the technology of rice planting in IRRI, are now way, way ahead of the Philippines in the area of rice production. The reply was simple and forthright, they walk their talk.

Dr. Bruce Tolentino's presentations earlier should have answered such question -- why Vietnam and Thailand have high rice output than PH. Here are two charts from some of his recent presentations.

1. Thailand has about 11 million hectares of rice land, Vietnam nearly 8 million hectares, vs. only less than 5 M hectares for the PH.

2. The term Thailand and Vietnam are "way ahead of the PH in rice production" is true on absolute rice output, but not for Thailand in average productivity per hectare.

Another chart from Bruce T.

3. TH and VN are on mainland SE Asia. PH is far out and detached from the mainland. Them in the mainland have Mekong River, Ton Le Sap River, other huge rivers that provide huge irrigation. They also have wide flat lands suitable for rice farming.

And I will  add these additional factors:

4. VN and TH perhaps have only about 1/5 of the number of typhoons per year as those entering PH. On average, about 20 typhoons enter the PH, about half just pass nearby while another half make actual landfalls and cause more damages and crop losses.

5. VN and TH are done with their agrarian reform (AR) and forced land redistribution; the PH is not done yet, after 43 years of implementation, starting only in 1972 Marcos' land reform, not counting earlier land reform programs. No timetable, seemingly forever AR means endless uncertainty in agribusiness. Large scale rice farming is not possible because of potential political backlash.

6. Thailand has only about 65 M population, the PH has 100 M people (as of last year).

7. Subsidies to rice farmers, it is also being done in the PH. Tractors and water pumps, farm roads and irrigation, seeds and credit support, etc., these subsidies are given by the PH national government to small rice farmers. LGUs have their own subsidies too. 

The answer to Renan's question is often outside of politics and governments. Geography and nature provide the clue who should specialize on rice production, who should specialize in tourism, etc.

The cost  of production can always be lowered through technology and biotech. But  crop losses due to frequent typhoons, especially in the current  period of global cooling -- more rains, more flood -- losses cannot be easily controlled or minimized.

If the PH government should insist on rice "self-sufficiency", then it should allow corporate, large scale rice farming. Economies of scale, tapping lots of plant scientists and geneticists, will greatly improve PH rice output.

What is wrong with selling cheap rice from Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia? Do people glorify expensive rice via rice protectionism, rice QR and rice tariff? Then turn around and lambast the government, lambast anyone else, why PH rice prices are high?

The quick solution to  more rice supply in the  PH is through free trade, Abolish  rice protectionism, even  NFA monopoly in rice importation and  licensing of  importers. Allow those cheap rice from Th and Vietnam, and Cambodia, to be sold here cheaply too.
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See also:
Agri Econ 11: Protecting Land Properties by the Poor in India, April 22, 2014
Agri Econ 12: Presentation at WASWAC-BSWM Seminar, May 13, 2014
Agri Econ 13: What and Where to Plant, Nature vs. Government Planning, June 24, 2014 
Agri Econ 14: NO to Further Extension of Agrarian Reform, July 03, 2014

CSOs and State 19: UP Maroons and UP Alumni

As a University of the Philippines (UP) alumni myself, I find this story disturbing, but also inspiring. This should spur other alumni and sympathetic individuals to act on their own -- the spirit of civil society -- to help the UP Fighting Maroons. Written and posted by a friend in his facebook wall last Saturday, reposted by interaksyon yesterday and so far was shared 1,500+, reposting here too.
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Nowhere to go but UP: musings of a hopeful Maroon fan

…Our Maroons took the championship in '86 in the same year our countrymen won back their freedom.

I don't know if it was something that reflected the “mood” of the times. After the jubilation, the “ultimate victory,” we seemingly grew complacent. We were the best but had stopped getting better. '86 was UP's last championship. Every year since was a disappointment, in varying degrees. We had built up leads in the first half only to squander them in the dying minutes. We surged on early but could not follow through 'til the end.

Why UP has been winless in last three years

UP has been crown-less in 27 years and winless in the last three.

Recently, I met somebody from the Maroon's coaching staff and I got to learn why: Our team has been playing hungry, literally.

I talked with the players and also heard it from them firsthand. Asked what they needed the most, they replied: “We need more food.”

They have been going to practice on empty stomachs, playing competitive games without the nourishment required of a student-athlete. They've been walking on foot from one class to the next, one destination to another to save a coin or two for their education. They have not been receiving their allowances, the measly sum of anywhere from P5,000 to P10,000 -- a pittance considering what they have to go through to play for the country's Premiere University while measuring up to its stringent academic standards.

Recently, electricity in their quarters was cut off because of “unpaid bills.”

The game has grown sickeningly “commercialized,” I know. UP stands by its ideals, I know too. The University rewards integrity and excellence, but if its meager budget does not allow it to, should not the alumni step in?

Other Universities invest shamelessly in their athletes. Should we not share a little if only to afford our fellow Isko a modicum of self-respect?

One of our players was offered what would translate in any parlance as a “bribe” -- allowances of all sorts, housing, and the spot cash of P1 million -- just to play for another school. He is 17, young, impressionable, and impoverished like most of his teammates. Saying “yes” would have been the easier and more lucrative response. True to his UP education, I was told, he gave an emphatic “No!”

But like I said, basketball has grown shamelessly commercialized these days. The other school went directly to our player's hometown to talk to his parents. If the kid won't agree, perhaps, the parents will be a tad less uncompromising, they must have thought.

Our Maroon, having learned of what happened, borrowed money, practically begging for airfare so he can convince his parents otherwise. Back in his hometown, he pleaded with them: “I am staying in UP. I will get my UP diploma. UP is my team, my second family, my community!”

Of course, every parent would want the best for their children. The offer was tempting, sure, but the kid's plea was also unbending. The father requested only one thing: one win, one win out of several games in a season; not the championship, not the MVP, just one win; not the sun and the stars, just a ray of hope that this adolescent does not waste away his future on something so abstract as the “UP way.”

Hearing the story evoked a feeling similar to what I had felt when I first set foot in Guian, Samar after the great storm. Right there and then, only one question loomed in my head: What can I do to help?

There, amidst the ruins, they play the game for the sheer joy of it, like any sport should be, competitive or otherwise. Here, despite poverty and the allure of the “easy buck,” one of ours needs help so he can continue pursuing a childhood dream.

If basketball can help a nation cope with devastation, surely its people can give back to those who live only to honor the game.

This kid, or rather, this man of 17 years, has reminded me of what I have long learned -- though sometimes forget -- from UP. It is not just about winning as it is about playing to deserve the victory.

Sa kanyang mumunting paraan, sa tatag ng kanyang paninindigan, ipinaalala niya sa aking hubad ang tagumpay kung hindi nagmula sa pagmamahal -- pagmamamahal sa komunidad, at pagmamahal sa bayan.

In his small way, on the strength of his conviction, he reminded me that victory is empty if it does not come from love -- of community and people.

I had dinner with him at my home. He finished all the leftover desserts in the fridge and I could not be happier. At least, those would be a few more calories to burn during practice, a little more energy to bring the team closer to the goal of “1 win.”

I did not promise him what other schools offered. I had neither the resources nor the respect for that grease. What I have are friends, fellow alumni, whom I know have the generosity to justify the varsity's faith in its school. I committed to begin passing the hat -- for decent meals, for Ikot fare, for lights in their sleeping quarters. I promised I would be part of a community -- the UP community -- that has never been known to abandon its own.

Right now, like his father, all I want is 1 win. Where we are, where we have been, and how we have defiantly bounced back from adversity, I know we have nowhere to go but UP.

But mostly because our Maroons want nowhere else to be, deserve nowhere else to be, but UP.

Renan B. Dalisay
84-37652
B.A. Political Science
University of the Philippines-Diliman

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See also:
CSOs and State 15: Old Debate on Competition and Markets, June 15, 2012 

CSOs and State 16: The Integrity Initiative, December 17, 2012 
CSOs and State 17: UP Pahinungod and Typhoon Victims in Mindanao, December 31, 2012 

CSOs and State 18: Civil Society as Lobbyists for More Government? Cigarette Warning Bill, March 02, 2014