Rice shortage

WAY BACK in 2008, we wrote an article that asked the question: “Land Reform: Root Cause of Rice Shortage?

Presidential Decree No. 27 by President Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1972, as implemented under CARP or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, was issued by the government to increase production, alleviate poverty in the rural areas, stop the insurgency, restore the dignity of our farmers and hasten industrialization.

However, what came out through the years was that our situation under land reform has totally deteriorated in the last 46 years that the law was in force.

We believe that not everyone should have been awarded land under the program unless the farmer- beneficiary has the capability to manage and run the farm ceded to him.

Before the advent of land reform, the landowner was the banker and financier of the tenant in all his needs. The latter had practically no problem, hence he did well in the farm and produced a good crop.  Even the money for living and school expenses of his family, it is the landowner that was extending him assistance.

Then land reform came, the landowners would no longer help and they felt that the law unfairly took away their property and gave it to the tenants.

However, government was not able to give adequate support to land reform beneficiaries who were just left to fend for themselves. Financing obtained from private sources came with high interest charges.

A German agency, DAR-Gtz, that conducted a study on Philippine land reform reported that 26 percent of farmer beneficiaries of the government program ended up selling their land, and usually back also to the original owner. In Iloilo it was even recorded at 35 percent.

Then, for landowners who bought back their land, they no longer want it planted to rice nor will they allow anyone to farm it lest it be subject again to land reform. What happened was that the farm was just being left idle while waiting for an opportunity for it to be converted to residential or commercial, depending on the trend of growth and development in the area.

Are you still surprised that we have a perennial rice shortage?

For Iloilo, however, the rice industry has very bright prospects with the resumption of the P11.2-billion Jalaur River multipurpose irrigation project in the municipality of Calinog, as contracted by the Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd. of Korea.

Expected to be the biggest reservoir dam outside Luzon when finished, it will increase the rice production of our farmers in Iloilo and this can regain our title as the “Food Basket and Rice Granary of the Philippines.”

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Historical Quote of the Week

“The first guerilla group during World War II organized against the Japanese Imperial Army was in Panay under Gen. Macario Peralta.” (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com)/PN

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