Rice Tariffication – If You Can't Solve A Problem, Change The Problem!

Those who oppose PH rice tariffication are banging their heads against the wall – they are acting out of ignorance.

Now look at the image above, logo and text saying, "World Trade Organization." Based on a document I obtained from the Department of Agriculture, DA, the Philippines as a WTO member must complywith the WTO requirement to implement rice tariffication.

Change the problem: Let us withdraw membership from the WTO and get rid of rice tariffication once and for all? No, we cannot, says our DA source; otherwise, our trade with WTO countries will suffer.

So, I say, if you cannot solve the tariffication problem, change the problem!

Now look at the other small image, that of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. He is the one who came down from the mountain, Moses-like, bringing with him 2 tablets of commandments on which are written what he calls The Eight Paradigms(see my essay, "William Dar – The New Moses With The New Tablets!" 04 September 2019, Ani Kitá, ianikita.blogspot.com). Thus: Paradigm #1 requires the modernization of agriculture, which includes cost-cutting technologies, minimizing labor and expenses. Why? To be globally competitive.

(The reason I have included the cover of my new ebook, Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained, is that the book will help you appreciate and assess what roles new paradigms now have to play in the New PH Agriculture, at no expense to you – my ebook is free up to 17 September 2019; simply email me at frankahilario@gmail.com. After that date, I will charge US$17/P900/copy, to buy my big family some rice. I assure your entertainment reading any of those 79 short essays; my ebook is witty and worldly-wise!)

Here are facts of the case:

No, rice tariffication is not a new policy. The law was signed this year but its passage had been postponed in the last 5 years, beginning when Proceso Alcala was PH Secretary of Agriculture and Noynoy Aquino was President.

Yes, my DA source says PH has "to put in place the necessary productivity-enhancing measures to protect our palay farmers and make them globally competitive."

Now, why are Filipino rice farmers suffering from low buying prices of their rices with the advent of imported rices?

Because Filipino farmers are not globally competitive!

Compare now these costs of production per kilo of rice: Philippines P12/kilo,  Thailand P8/kilo, Vietnam P6/kilo.
Filipinos are losers in our own country when it comes to rice!

That is why we need to consolidate our farm operations – in Paradigm #4 – so that our agriculture can enjoy economies of scale, so that our rice can be competitive with the imported ones.

There is something else that occurs to me now, something to do with the irrational insistence on rice self-sufficiency by previous secretaries of agriculture – we did not want to change the problem and we insisted laboring in the fields with our overriding desire for self-sufficiency in rice, costing our country heavily.

Slowly but surely we were self-destructing.
Thank God we have a Secretary of Agriculture who knows his Science!@517