Rice paddies in Santa Maria, Bulacan

In the Philippines, rice production is an important aspect of the country's food supply and economy. The Philippines is the 8th-largest rice producer in the world, accounting for 2.8% of global rice production.[1] The Philippines was also the world's largest rice importer in 2010.[2] There are an estimated 2.4 million rice farmers in the Philippines as of 2020.[3]

2015 Annual Rice Production of Philippine provinces.

Production

Rice is the most important food crop, and is a staple food in most of the country. It is especially produced in Luzon, the Western Visayas, Southern Mindanao, and Central Mindanao.[4]

In 2010, nearly 20.7 million metric tons of palay (pre-husked rice) were produced.[5] In 2010, palay accounted for 21.86% percent of gross value added in agriculture and 2.37% of GNP.[6] In 2017, the total paddy rice output met 93% of the country's annual requirement. The population consumed 11.7 million tonnes of rice.[7] Historically, the per-hectare rice yields in the Philippines have generally been low in comparison with other Asian countries.[4]

Farmers

There are an estimated estimated 2.4 million rice farmers in the Philippines as of 2020.[3] The average age of rice farmers is 56 years; 82% of rice farmers are men and 18% are women.[8] Many Filipino farmers live in poverty due to a combination of factors, including economic policy, environmental, and land ownership issues.[9][10]

History

The Nagacadan Rice Terraces, Ifugao Province.

The Green Revolution

Since the mid-1980s yields have increased substantially as a result of the cultivation of high-yielding rice varieties developed in the mid-1960s at the International Rice Research Institute located in the Philippines. The proportion of "miracle" rice in total output rose from zero in 1965–66 to 81 percent in 1981–82.[4] Average productivity increased from 1.23 metric tons per hectare in 1961 to 3.59 metric tons per hectare in 2009.[1]

This green revolution was accompanied by an expanded use of chemical inputs. Among farmers surveyed in Central Luzon, the quantity of insecticide active ingredient applied per hectare increased tenfold from 1966 to 1979, from less than 0.1 kilogram per hectare to nearly 1.0 kilogram per hectare. By the mid-1990s, this figure had been cut in half. Since then, use has declined even more, and levels of insecticide use are now slightly below what they were before the Green Revolution began.

Growth of irrigation

The government also undertook a major expansion of the nation's irrigation system. The area under irrigation grew from under 500,000 hectares in the mid-1960s to 1.5 million hectares in 2009, almost half of the potentially irrigable land.[5]

In the 1980s rice production encountered problems. Average annual growth for 1980-85 declined to a mere 0.9 percent, as contrasted with 4.6 percent for the preceding fifteen years. Growth of value added in the rice industry also fell in the 1980s. Tropical storms and droughts, the general economic downturn of the 1980s, and the 1983-85 economic crisis all contributed to this decline.[4]

Crop loans dried up, prices of agricultural inputs increased, and palay prices declined. Fertilizer and plant nutrient consumption dropped 15 percent. Farmers were squeezed by rising debts and declining income. Hectarage devoted to rice production, level during the latter half of the 1970s, fell an average of 2.4 percent per annum during the first half of the 1980s, with the decline primarily in marginal, nonirrigated farms. As a result, in 1985, the last full year of the Marcos regime, the country imported 538,000 tons of rice.[4]

The situation improved somewhat in the late 1980s, and smaller amounts of rice were imported. In 1990 the country experienced a severe drought. Output fell by 1.5 percent, forcing the importation of an estimated 400,000 tons of rice.[4]

As of 2018, the Philippines had a WTO-approved annual quota limiting private rice imports to protect local farmers, buying up to 805,200 tonnes of rice with a 35 percent import tariff.[7]

Genetic engineering

The government has promoted genetically modified rice, including golden rice, for production in the country.[11] The Supreme Court of the Philippines issued a Writ of Kalikasan in 2023 ordering the Department of Agriculture to stop the commercial distribution of genetically modified rice and eggplants in the country.[12]

Climate change

Philippine rice cultivation is both vulnerable to the effects of global climate change and a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.[13] This vulnerability to climate change threatens the country's food security.[13] A report published by the United Nations Development Programme and supported by the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources recommends the adoption of policies and programs to address the effects and causes of climate change.[14]

In 2008–2011, the International Labour Organization and Philippine government agencies set up a pilot project to strengthen socio-economic resilience to climate change for Agusan del Norte rice farmers, through financial protection schemes and the diversification of livelihoods.[15]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paddy fields in the Philippines.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.

  1. 1 2 "2009 Crop Production Statistics". FAO Stat. FAO Statistics. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  2. ↑ "Factbox - Top 10 rice exporting, importing countries". Reuters. 28 January 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  3. 1 2 "Profile of the Filipino Farmer". Philippine Rice Research Institute. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Philippines: A Country Study:Rice and the Green Revolution". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. June 1991. Retrieved March 21, 2009.
  5. 1 2 "Palay: Volume of Production by Cereal Type, Geolocation, Period and Year". CountrySTAT Database. Bureau of Agricultural Statistics. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  6. ↑ "Philippine economy posts 7.1 percent GDP growth". National Accounts of the Philippines. National Statistical Coordination Board. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  7. 1 2 "Philippines to Import Rice Through 2020 Despite Rising Output - Minister". Reuters (via Agriculture.com). 19 June 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  8. ↑ "Age, Sex and Civil Status". Philippine Rice Research Institute. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  9. ↑ Habacon, John Patrick (2021-03-13). "[OPINION] Why Filipino farmers suffer". Rappler. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  10. ↑ "People's Review of SDG 1 & 10: Regressive gov't policies hinder poverty, inequality eradication". IBON Foundation. 2021-07-07. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  11. ↑ Freedman, Amy (2013). "Rice security in Southeast Asia: beggar thy neighbor or cooperation?". The Pacific Review. Taylor & Francis. 26 (5): 433–454. doi:10.1080/09512748.2013.842303. ISSN 0951-2748. S2CID 153573639. p. 443
  12. ↑ "SC orders stop to commercial release of genetically modified rice, eggplant products". CNN. April 19, 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  13. 1 2 "Adaptation and Mitigation Initiatives in Philippine Rice Cultivation". United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  14. ↑ Adaptation and Mitigation Initiatives in Philippine Rice Cultivation (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 2015.
  15. ↑ "The Philippines: Climate change adaptation for vulnerable farming populations". International Labour Organization. 2013-08-07. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
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