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Villar vows to back farmers to improve rice production

11/09/2009

Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. has vowed to focus his attention on farmers to improve rice production, so that the country will be self-sufficient and does not have to import rice. This, he said, would address the issue of the food security of Filipinos.

“We used to export rice to other countries, now we are the biggest importer of rice. The government has been postponing the country’s rice self-sufficiency targets. We should stick to these targets and be rice self-sufficient soon,” Villar said.

Villar lauded the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) on their discovery of rice varieties that can survive flooding, salinity and drought.

IRRI recently announced that the Philippines would be the first to try submergence-tolerant materials that will produce new rice hybrids such as “sub1 or submarine rice” that can withstand being submerged in flood for weeks. There is also the so-called “aerobic rice” that can be planted in mountainous areas and does not need much water or irrigation.

Villar, however, found it ironic that the Philippines is leading the discovery of these new rice varieties and yet so many Filipinos are still experiencing hunger because they cannot afford to buy rice.

The recently released Third Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey showed that 41 percent of Filipino families or an estimated 7.5 million consider themselves as “food-poor” while 35 percent put themselves on the “food-borderline.” Meanwhile, a mere 24 percent said they consider themselves as “not food-poor.”

SWS noted that the self-rated food poverty rate has steadily risen from 36 percent in February, 39 percent in June, and 41 percent in September of 2009 after declining from 42 percent in December 2008.

The number of families who put themselves on the food-borderline slightly declined from 33 percent as well as those who considered themselves as not food-poor, which was 28 percent in the June 2009 survey, the SWS pointed out.

Villar emphasized that that next administration should support local farmers in using the new varieties of rice to increase their rice production and for the country to avoid spending too much on rice importation.

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