ADB: Rice self-sufficiency not achievable in 2013 — or any time soon

In emphatic response to the government’s optimism that the country could reach self-sufficiency in rice in 2013, an official from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that the goal would not be achievable any time soon. “There [is] no historical data that will support this claim. It is not possible to attain sufficiency next year, not even in the near future. Not in your or my lifetime,” said ADB Practice Leader in Agriculture, Food Security and Rural Development Lourdes Adriano. The international multilateral financing institution took the stand following its release of four working papers on rice, recommending the relaxation of export restrictions and less emphasis on self-sufficiency programs. It also forecast that the Philippines' rice imports could reach 700,000 metric tons (MT) in 2013. “Under normal conditions, [we’d] be averaging 1.2 million MT in two years… The US Department of Agriculture has [an] even higher forecast of 1.5 million MT,” said Adriano, referring to the combined amount of rice importation in 2012 to 2013. In a roundtable discussion in ADB Headquarters in Ortigas, Mandaluyong City, Adriano told reporters that the forecast has not yet considered the effects of typhoons on rice. She also said that government target on rice self-sufficiency is not at all possible for 2013, and not even in the medium term, and that it should not push for 100 percent sufficiency if it cannot do it. Adriano added that self-sufficiency is not bad as long as working towards it does not compromise the production of other major crops, with the country’s limited resources such as land, capital and labor in mind. The ADB official also said that the papers released by the ADB recommend that rice importing countries lower their sufficiency targets in exchange for commitments from exporting countries to stay away from unilateral export restrictions. This is not the first time the ADB has expressed skepticism about the country's achieving self-sufficiency in the near future. However, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said in a briefing Thursday that the government is still going for the self-sufficiency target in 2013. “I don’t care what they think. We are Filipinos, we know better in our country. And when I say that we will attain self-sufficiency next year, we will do our best to make that happen,” he said at the 26th National Coconut Week Celebration at the Philippine Coconut Authority in Quezon City. The government is looking at reducing rice imports to about 100,000 MT in 2013. The Department's rice production target for 2012 is 17.8 million MT, revised down from its previous target of 18.4 million MT. Rice output in the first half of 2012 reached 7.89 million MT, 4.5 percent higher than  7.57 million MT in the same period last year. Based on the rice sufficiency road map, the country will reach rice self-sufficiency if production reaches 21.12 million MT to 22.51 million MT. The country will be needing as much as P84.2 billion to finance the rice sufficiency program until 2016 — P31.11 billion in 2013, P22.73 billion in 2014, P17.54 billion in 2015 and P12.82 billion in 2016. — BM, GMA News