Self Sufficiency Filipino Style
Feb 25th, 2008 | By Philly | Category: Living There, Self SufficiencyHere’s some extracts from a comment I made recently on my friend Bob Martin’s Living in the Philippines blog. It got me thinking … mainly about how few of the things I intended doing after I made the move to the Philippines I have gotten started on doing.
@ –> all thinking in terms of self sufficiency … very few Americans think along these lines … it is certainly more doable in the Philippines than in the US, both by climate and reduced government meddling. Sadly many Filipinos take no advantage of growing their own either, the field is actually quite wide open … and Mindanao is a huge, almost untapped food source. Even here in Luzon, very near Manila, I pass hectare after hectare of rich, vacant ground. … a huge scope for someone who wants to set up something on a family-size scale.
The more I reflect on my words,the more I wonder why things are the way they are today. Just a few days ago I read a newspaper report which I had to put down and walk away from before I allowed it to make me really angry. The gist of it was, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (the Philippine president) had gone to see the leader of Vietnam to iron out an agreement which would extract a promise from Vietnam to supply the Philippines with rice in coming years. I try to stay out of politics, but this is more of a ‘rice bowl’ issue (pun intended) and frankly, just writing about it raises my blood pressure. The article goes on to mention:
… "I am very confident that in the coming weeks we will have a positive response," (Secretary of Agriculture Arthur) Yap told reporters at a briefing on the global rice situation. “I am fairly confident that we will be able to secure the rice stocks that will be needed to raise our buffer.”… (according to the article the country currently has only an eight-day supply of rice) …
The Philippines is the world’s biggest importer of rice and faces the risk of shortages this year as soaring prices encourage exporters to stockpile the grain…
Aside from a temptation to send Secretary Yap a ‘do it yourself’ manual Seppuku, something Masatoshi Wakabayashi, Minister of Agriculture for Japan would understand well, my productive thoughts on this situation are:
- In 1946, when the Philippines gained independence from the US, it was one of the largest rice exporters in the world.
- Unbridled population growth (the single most critical issue the Philippines faces, IMO) has certainly been a factor, but the Philippines has not even attempted to maintain a place as a significant exporter.
- Among other resources the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos here on Luzon is a world leader in rice production techniques and education. people from all over the world, most assuredly including Vietnam (a country you might remember recently suffered from a little ‘police action’ and a country which also has a large Catholic population and has growth problems of it’s own learned how to turn themselves from importer to exporter at Los Banos.
- Even here on the outskirts of metro manila there are thousand and thousands of hectares going to waste that could be producing rice.
So what’s the solution? Darned if I know. I do know if one waits for a solution from the government, they will wait a darn long time. As long as we have leadership who hardly seems worried about being down to an week or so supply of perhaps the most important staple food we are unlikely to see anything productive coming out of the capitol.
But a real answer for us foreigners, who have no business taking an active role in governmental affairs anyway, is to make progress on a one-to-one basis. I know from actual results on farm land my extended family owns that you can make a profit in the Philippines raising rice. I also know there is plenty demand for other crops (rice culture demands certain conditions which you can’t economically reproduce on every patch of land). As Americans, steeped in the tradition of a country where only 2% of the country feeds the other 98% as well as much of the rest of the world, we tend to think of home production of food as a hobby or a nicety … but producing, even on a small scale here in the Philippines could make a real difference in the way you, your family and your neighbors live and are nourished. I’ll certainly be writing more on this subject.
Related posts:
- Don’t Blame It All On Filipino Inefficiency
- Big City Self Sufficiency
- Philippine Fairy Tales and Other Bedtime Stories
- Should Filipino Blogs Be Classed As Different — Or Is The Web World-Wide?
- Self Sufficiency
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Philly,
A great topic and one that I look forward to following.
I think the size of the landholding is an issue here. A multitude of small plots, with each doing their own thing is not going to raise productivity. If all those small plots were combined into larger holdings, then more efficient methods of rice farming could be utilised e.g. sowing from the air.
Perhaps there needs to be more co-operatives formed amongst rice farmers to take advantage of economies of scale.
I certainly consider your points very valid, Laurence. Indeed, land reform legislation here has fragmented a lot of once more productive operations. However, I would argue, though, that the fact that a small holding is less profitable than a more efficient sized one is apoor excuse for doing nothing and begging rice. A .76 hectare plot can produce more than P60,000 worth of rice in a year mainly with one man’s labor and that’s p60,000 he wouldn’t have if he waited around for something better to happen. In particular, I’m interested in doing more to raise what one or a few families need and let the commercial side sort itself out.
Hi Dave
My grandparents originally come from Bulacan. I still have a lot of relatives there and my sister’s family lives in Angat. I have been spending a lot of my summer vacation there 40-30 years ago and I can remember the vast rice paddies we pass between Manila and Angat. Sadly during my visits in the last 20 years, I’ve noticed that a lot of the rice paddies have now been filled in and replaced by housing subdivisions. No wonder there’s a shortage of rice in the Phils.
The same is happening in Bukidnon - it used to grow corn and coffee but then again - the cornfields are now being replaced with rubber, pineapple and banana plantations. But I’m glad that my family haven’t fallen into the trap - sadly, we are now a minority. I consider our family lucky to remain self-sufficient in terms of rice, corn, coffee, vegetables (and maybe Jim’s chickens in the near future!) and there’s even enough to get around for the extended family, neighbours and friends as well (if they help out during harvest time!).
Hi Marilou,
Thank you so much for dropping by and for your interesting comment.
I certainly agree that arable land is being gobbled up by commercial development at a great rate … among other reasons this is a consequence of unbridled population growth … the key to many of the Philippine’s problems.
But this doesn’t negate my claim that a great many Filipinos are ignoring the resources they could make use of . Or that forigners looking to make thier life more rich and interesting could engage in self-sufficiency.
Largely (perhaps sadly) because of the mind set of my own country, mention food growing and everyone launches into analysis of large-scale agribusiness investments and government programs to ’solve problems’.
In the long run such thoughts are valid, but my personal point of view is, individuals can do alot to solve problems on an individual or neighborhood level. I may be too naive, but hey, it gives me somehtingto write about