GMA NEWS online; 04/12/2011 | 11:16 PM

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala on Tuesday said rice cartels could be behind rumors of a looming rice crisis in the country, as he assured that there will be enough rice supply throughout the country.

At a press briefing in Malacañang, Alcala said he cannot think of any reason why such a scenario was being presented to the public.

“Lumalabas pong tama ‘yan (na may kinalaman ang rice cartels). Wala po akong maisip na dahilan kung bakit magkakaroon na lang ng basta bastang problema (It’s turning out that that’s true, that rice cartels have a hand in this. I can think of no other reason there would suddenly be a problem)," he told reporters.

He believed rice cartels were hurt by the decision of the National Food Authority (NFA) Council to distribute rice importation to several private entities.

“Sa pagdi-distribute ng importation, iniwasan po natin dito na ma-corner ng cartel. Gayat-gayat po ito na i-distribute sa iba’t ibang traders (In the distribution of importation, we’re trying to avoid here being cornered by the cartel. These are in slices when distributed among different traders)," he said.

“Maaaring nagalit sa kagawaran, nagagalit dahil hindi maliit na pera ito. Ang involved po dito ay napakalaking halaga na maaaring ipinag-isip nang hindi maganda ng mga datihang nakikinabang (Perhaps angry with the authorities, angry because this is no loose change. Involved here are large sums of money, that maybe those who have long benefited from this are now thinking of something that isn’t nice)," he added.

Alcala said that the government has not received any report about the supposed rice crisis. He said even the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) has denied issuing such a statement.

“Wala kaming official na natatanggap na ganyang report. At even sa Office of the President walang nakikita na ganyang report. Hindi po namin alam kung saan naggaling ang report na 'yan. Even NICA, natawagan namin, wala silang pinalalabas na ganyan. Siguro ang dapat na iwasan natin ay pagbibigay ng takot sa ating mamayan," he said.

(We have received no such official report. Even the Office of the President has yet to see any such report. We have no idea where any such report could have come from. Even NICA, we’ve called them, and they haven’t issued any such report. Perhaps we should avoid frightening our citizenry.)

Harvest projections

Compared to last year’s dry season harvest of 6.6 million metric tons of palay, the government is expecting a harvest of at least 7.6 million metric tons of palay in the first semester of this year or a 15 percent increase in harvest, he said.

Alcala said that the projected cropping for 2011 is 17.46 million metric tons.

He further said that the 860,000 metric tons of palay the government will be importing for this year will be enough for the country’s consumption.

In the same briefing, the DA said it targets the achievement of rice self-sufficiency for the country by 2013 and wants to maintain it through 2016.

Among the things the DA is doing is to step up a media campaign to eliminate staple wastage — one of the ways to manage rice consumption.

Dr. Flordeliza Bordey — program leader for Impact Assessment Policy Research and Advocacy of Philippine Rice Research Institute — said every Filipino is wasting 14 grams of milled rice per day.

“Probably, many of you have not known that every Filipino is wasting about 14 grams of milled rice per day… (the)… equivalent (of) about three table spoons per person per day," she said.

“… [I]f there are 94 million Filipinos who are wasting this (rice), then we are wasting about 480, 000 metric tons of rice, (an amount) which can already feed about 4 million people for the whole year," Bordey said.

Managing consumption

Aside from eliminating wastage, the other ways to manage consumption are diversifying staple and encouraging consumption of unpolished rice to promote responsible consumption patterns, which in turn promote better health and nutrition.

“One of the strategies that is not well-explored by the previous administration is the managing of consumptions. It’s like we are trying to keep on increasing our production, but then our consumption side is increasing and increasing because, one, of the population growth and second, of the increasing per capita rice consumption," she said.

Bordey said that “from 106 kilograms per person per year in year 1998, 1999 our rice per capita consumption rose to 119 kilograms per person per year in 2008-2009."

To address the concern of an increasing number of rice per capita, Bordey said they would engage in extensive education and information dissemination to encourage people to consume alternative staple food.

“So, how do we manage consumption? It’s not like telling the people not to eat rice but we intend to promote responsible consumption patterns for better health and nutrition," she added.

According to Bordey, one way to do this is to diversify the sources of staples or carbohydrates. “So rice is not the only source. Some parts of the population are eating white corn as their staple. Some are eating sweet potatoes, cassava — especially in the country side," she said.

Bordey said they will be able to make prices relatively cheaper by increasing the supply of these alternative staples as well. “And therefore, we induce substitution from rice towards these crops in the process," she said.

“Another one was the consumption of unpolished rice or better known to many as brown rice. So this brown rice is not only more nutritious than the white rice but it also has this property of higher milling recovery. So, for example, a one hundred (100) kilogram of palay, we can turn it into about 70 kilogram of unpolished rice or brown rice whereas if we convert it to white rice we will only be able to recover about 65 kilograms of white rice," Bordey said. — [(by: AMITA O. LEGASPI, GMA News),(AY/VS, GMA News)]


Source: DA says cartels behind rumors of looming rice crisis