The more appropriate question, perhaps, is the other way around. Is the Philippine government prepared to improve the lot of rice farmers in the face of liberal imports?
Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan early this week said that the government should review quantitative restrictions on rice imports because they tend to increase food prices. The limitations on rice imports, he said, was resulting in an upward pressure on prices and eroding the income of most Filipino families.
The country’s chief economic planner noted the government should weigh the benefits of the quantitative restrictions against the inflationary pressure these restrictions put on rice.
“We have to study that because that should not be the case. We have to cure the root of the problem, which is the uncertainty in the international trade for agricultural commodities,” Balisacan said.
The rice import restrictions have actually benefited Filipino farmers. Rice prices tend to artificially increase with no cheaper imports to contend with. Rising rice prices, in turn, encourage farmers to increase production.
But Balisacan said the higher rice production does not necessarily mean the income of farmers would increase “because you have to ask them where their inputs are coming from, and if they can actually market their goods, especially if they are isolated.”
Rice farmers, indeed, are still at the mercy of middlemen, even in times of price spikes. They do not have the wherewithal to mill their own palay, nor the means to put up warehouses to stock the commodity and prevent spoilage. They easily fall prey to the middlemen, who have the resources to finance fertilizer inputs, mill palay and stock the produce.
Balisacan’s call to review the quantitative restrictions on rice imports in a bid to make Filipino farmers more efficient and productive is only relevant once the government has put in place so-called intervention measures.
Farmers need access to credit, more irrigation facilities, modern agricultural implements, cooperative warehouses and cheaper transportation services to increase productivity. Give them the modern tools and cheaper credit and our rice farmers will be ready to face imports and competition.