Senator Cynthia Villar is urging government agencies to hasten farm mechanization, saying rice liberalization alone would not be enough to ensure the competitiveness of Philippine rice and solve the country’s rice woes.
Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, said that while government is moving to liberalize the importation of rice following the scrapping of the quantitative restriction (QR) imposed by the World Trade Organization (WTO), actions should also be taken to improve the competitiveness of our rice farmers.
A preferential trade deal secured by the Philippines after becoming a WTO member in 1995, QR prevents the influx of cheap rice from abroad to protect local farmers from foreign competition.
The country has been imposing QR for years but chose not to renew it with the WTO in June last year.
The removal of QR paves the way for traders to import additional volumes of rice from Southeast Asian countries on a 35 percent tariff, which is the maximum rate agreed by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to be imposed on rice.
However, the seasoned lawmaker said even a 35 percent tariff under a liberalized scheme is not enough to help Filipino farmers become globally competitive.
“Even at the maximum rate, Vietnamese rice would still be cheaper than rice produced in the Philippines,” the veteran lawmaker said.
The lady senator said this is because the cost of production in Vietnam is P6 per kilo of palay while it is at P12 per kilo in the Philippines.
She said the biggest cost difference between the two countries is labor.
“In Vietnam, the cost of labor to produce a kilo of palay is P1.20 as compared to P4.60 in the Philippines. This could be overcome through mechanization,” Villar said.
She also pointed out that farm mechanization could ignite the interest of children of farmers in farming.
”The children of our farmers do not want to plant palay manually anymore. With mechanization, they will be once more attracted to their farms because they will be operating machines from planting to harvesting,” Villar said.
In the meantime, she expressed joy that the Department of Finance has agreed to create a Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund that is to be funded by a P10 billion annual allocation in the General Appropriations Act.
The Department of Finance has agreed to create a Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund that is to be funded by a P10 billion annual allocation in the General Appropriations Act.
Villar said all rice tariffs would go into the fund, which will then be used to educate rice farmers on how to use mechanized farming and produce good seeds, as well as to provide them with machines.
“With mechanization and good seeds, our farmers could increase their production from four metric tons to six metric tons per hectare. That means a 50 percent increase in their production and income,” she said.
“With mechanization and good seeds, our farmers could increase their production from four metric tons to six metric tons per hectare. That means a 50 percent increase in their production and income.”
“If we could do that, I think we could compete with Vietnam easily, and that solves the problem,” Villar said.
She assured that provisions on mechanization and good seeds would be part of the rice tariffication bill that she would soon be taking up at the plenary.
“We will put all these provisions in the law – that this money would be for mechanization, this would be for good seeds and so on. Hopefully, we could make our rice farmers competitive in the long run and as soon as possible,” Villar said.
