Planting rice (the old way) is never fun

WALA LANG

I was seated at dinner recently with two gentlemen from Vietnam who happened to be here in the early 1980s. They remarked that then, Vietnam was importing a lot of things from here, including food. One thing led to another and the conversation led to how come it’s now the other way around—we import rice, sugar, cement, and I don’t know what else, from them.

What has happened in the 40-odd years between then and now? Vietnam was of course leftist for the longest time but I asked anyway if they were into land reform.  They answered yes but agricultural land could not be sold by the land reform beneficiaries, they could not be converted to industrial, commercial or housing—they had to remain agricultural. With government inputs to improve productivity, post-harvest processing, water supply, farm-to-market roads, extension services, and so on, production cost dropped and harvests rose. The net result is that Vietnam farmers make a good living on farming, and the country has a rice surplus to export to countries like the Philippines who can’t raise enough for themselves.

‘BENT FROM MORN TIL THE SET OF SUN’ Philippine agriculture of long ago by National Artist Fernando C. Amorsolo (Collection of Jayson Ong)

Recognizing the urgency of raising agricultural production, President Marcos Jr. has taken on the agriculture portfolio. With climate change and international uncertainties, something could happen that could cut off our rice supply. It’s only natural for Thailand or Vietnam, for example, to cut exports if their harvests are just enough for their own needs. Where then can we get and how much would we have to pay to import what we need? We are lucky not to have experienced famine like what is now underway in Ethiopia, Somalia. (Think also of food riots.)

Our approach is embodied in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Act of 1988 (R.A. No. 6657, as amended) that focuses on the “welfare of the landless farmers and farmworkers… to promote social justice and to move the nation toward sound rural development and industrialization, and the establishment of owner cultivatorship of economic-size farms as the basis of Philippine agriculture.”

The Foundation for Economic Freedom headed by economist Calisto V. Chikiamco considers the objective sound, but details of the law and its implementation have resulted in the continuation of traditional and small-scale farming. Average farm land size is now one hectare or less, the average farmer is 54 years old with the schooling of a fifth grader. Most are part-time farmers because farm income is not enough for family needs. Poverty level is highest among farmers, fishermen and rural area workers. Indeed, young people are discouraged from going into agriculture. To be a college graduate and to work overseas or a BPO is the ambition of many.

To achieve significant growth, Chikiamco continues, “We need to move from small-scale agriculture to commercial farming. (The use of management, science, technology and capital to increase productivity).  …Mechanization is difficult for small and fragmented lands.”

Studies of both economists and agriculturists have pointed out directions for raising agricultural productivity and output.

• Attract the best innovative and entrepreneurial brains to agriculture to counter or at least match the attractions of city, factory, professional, and foreign jobs.
• Let mechanization fill the gap left by the departure of young people from the rural to urban areas and foreign lands.
• Enable the formation of economic-size farm units that would attract the capital investment needed for mechanization, research, and innovation, possible only with an adequate return on investment.
• Devise arrangements that would have the advantages of farm areas larger than the five hectare limit imposed by law, while attaining the agrarian reform objective of social justice for the former landless farmers and at the same time achieve food security for all Filipinos.

In grade school, my classmates and I learned to sing, “Planting rice is never fun, bent from morn till the set of sun, cannot stand and cannot sit, cannot rest for a little bit.”

It’s not quite Amorsolo’s country life but at least until the 1940s, rice farming was profitable.  Lola Trining, her katiwala Mang Inggo, and her kasamá did pretty well with her Bulacan rice fields.  Times are different now.

Note: This article is based on the presentaton, “Easing land restrictions to promote investment in agriculture” by Calixto V. Chikiamco, president of the Foundation for Economic Freedom.

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