Month: December 2019

December 30, 2019

ASEAN’s farm research center SEARCA is boosting support for  favourable agri-biotechnology regulatory policies amid local calls for the revocation of the commercial permit of pro-Vitamin A-rich Golden Rice.

   Believing agri-biotechnology will be key to food security and upliftment of farmers’ lives,   the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture said it has

 partnered with three expert groups for this program to boost expert knowledge in regulations on Living Modified Organisms (LMOs).   LMOs include farm products more known to be the controversial GMOs (genetically modified organisms).

   This is through the opening of the program “Second Asian Course on Agribiotechnology.”

   Despite safety questions on these biotechnology products, SEARCA deems it important to harness the fully potential of agri-biotechnology through “effective communication and science-based regulatory frameworks.”

   SEARCA Director and National Academician Glenn B. Gregorio, highlighted SEARCA’s important role in advancing science-based innovations to address poverty and food security.

   “We stand behind products of agribiotechnology that increase agricultural productivity to feed a growing population in the midst of dwindling natural resources and erratic changes in climate,” Gregorio said. 

   “Due attention must be given to our resource-poor farmers by providing them access to information, best practices, and new technologies that gives them a fighting chance to cope with the many challenges they face and to open up better opportunities for them and their families so that they can have better quality lives,” said Gregorio. 

   According to Dr. Mahaletchumy Arujanan, ISAAA Global Coordinator, “we organized this training program to bring our Asian stakeholders updated information and hands-on experience on agribiotechnology, exercises on food/feed safety assessment, and tips on strategic communication, and risk management and communication.” 

   This year’s Asian Short Course on Agribiotechnology gathers 25 participants from both public and private sectors of eight countries. These are China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.  

   SEARCA’s partnership is with the International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications (ISAAA), Malaysian Biotechnology Information Center, and Monash University.    

   The program focuses on Agribiotechnology, Biotechnology Regulation, and Communication. 

   While government has just approved permit for use for food, feed, and processing of Golden Rice, Greenpeace  has reportedly filed a petition for the permit’s revocation.

   Golden Rice has been questioned by interest groups due to the technology that inserted a gene into the grain that enables the staple to produce increased Vitamin A, helping reduce massive Vitamin A-deficiency (VAD).

    It is targeted at preventing blindness that develops in around 500,000 people, mainly children, yearly, reported the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board (GRHB)

   “Nearly nine million children die of malnutrion every year. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) severely affects their immune system, hence it is involved in many of these children’s deaths in the guise of multiple diseases. Malaria deaths in children under five years of age has been linked with deficiencies in the intake of protein, vitamin A and zinc,” said the board.

   The rice technology will have huge economic impact for poor farmers as they no longer have to invest more into the seed.  The technology is being offered for free by humanitarian groups that helped its development. 

   Developers include Sygenta, the Philippine Rice Research Institute and International Rice Research Institute, among others.

   “The technology is built into each and every harvested seed, and does not require any additional investment. Let’s consider the potential of a single Golden Rice seed: a single plant will produce in the order of 1,000 seeds; within four generations or less than two years, that one plant will have generated seeds (amounting to more than 10to the twelfth power)”.

   “This represents up to 28-thousand metric tons of rice, which would be already sufficient to feed 100-thousand poor people for one year,” said the GRHB. Melody Mendoza Aguiba

December 4, 2019

Economists and rice sector leaders have pushed for mixed policy recommendations in light of the rice tarification law (RTL) — pressing for sustained implementation yet strong and “guaranteed” farmer support, or the RTL may turn to be “disastrous.”

   Safety nets for the protection of farmers are of prime importance as these apparently have not been installed as evidenced by farmers’ poor plight from palay’s collapsing price.    

   This has been raised during the “Regional Implications in the Philippines’ RTL” forum organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). 
   “The challenges we always face every cropping season relative to systemic barriers to farmers’ income  were not addressed head on in the RTL,” said Cresencio C. Paez, director of Asian Farmers Association for Rural Sustainable Development.

   “Safety nets for the protection of the farmers and consuming public were not taken into account concretely and strongly. A lot is said about promises. (But there is a need for) ‘guarantee’ of protection.”

   The challenges waiting to be addressed, Paez said,  amid the RTL’s implementation are “price volatility, land productivity, climate change’s effects, market power which involves cartel (traders hoarding rice) resulting in market abnormalities, governance, corruption, weak government agencies, and faulty extension delivery.” 

   “The RTL, if not well calibrated in its implementation, will be disastrous, and it is now happening this early,” said Paez at the SEARCA forum.

   SEARCA, in its mandate to help upgrade graduate education in agriculture in South East Asian countries, believes the vision toward a common ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) market is steering farms to form regional alliances. 

   That leads to“promoting and strengthening intra-ASEAN trade.” A liberalized rice sector under the RTL regime readies Philippines   in such globalized trade,

   Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, SEARCA director, said government should have a system by which the
“right price of the right rice” can be determined. 

   This has significant implication for both the farmers and consumers, Gregorio said.

   Farmers depend on the right price of rice for their income and livelihood.  Consumers likewise depend on the right price of rice for their economical consumption of the staple as an important factor in keeping a desirable standard of living.  

   The ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR), designed to beef up food security in emergencies in among ASEAN countries, should be sustained, although threatened, with the RTL.

   Jansinee Kankaew of the APTERR Secretariat, said the National Food Authority (NFA)’ s function has been altered as a result of the RTL.  This may adversely affect implementation of APTERR. 

   Thus, the APTERR program should be maintained for emergency purposes amid the RTL, Kankaew said at the SEARCA forum.

   APTERR is a reserve fund of 787,000 metric tons (MT) contributed by ASEAN members for emergency use .  Philippines contributes 12,000 MT of rice for this reserve.

   Jerry E. Pacturan International Fund for Agricultural Development country program officer, said the RTL is in track in supporting rural transformation and modernization. 

   “It will foster better use of resources, higher productivity, farm consolidation, mechanization of the rice sector, and improved focus on suitable rice areas,” he said at the SEARCA forum.

   Nevertheless, government should have a “more responsive strategy” so that vision toward diversification of the agriculture sector will be a reality.  With diversified agriculture, farmers will be able to shift or add growing of more profitable high value crops—fruits and vegetables–  and earn higher income.

   “If resources are managed properly and government focuses equal attention on other high value crops that the country has competitive advantage in,  a highly productive, quality-oriented, product-differentiated, and modernized rice industry will improve agriculture performance,” said Pacturan.

   The country may even be able to export specialty and heirloom rice from upland farms, he said.

   Dr. Ramon L. Clarete of the UP School of Economics said that there has been initial shock as Philippines appears imported rice this year at a higher 10% of  total consumption.

   That is a significant jump compared to just 5-7% imports in previous years. 

   Yet this import percentage will likely no longer exceed 15%, Clarete said.

    This is as the rice sector steps up to demands of competitiveness as a result of the RTL

   “The import liberalization may cause higher productivity to local rice farms and efficiency along its local rice value chains– milling and logistics. We will retire those inefficient and marginal rice farms, and what’s left would be the efficient farms. Old rice mills would have to go.  Like Cambodia the remaining rice millers invest in modern rice mills and much larger storage and other post-harvest facilities,” he said.

   Clarete’s policy recommendation is for government to help facilitate alliances of farms in order to boost productivity.  This will help small farms to commonly achieve economies of scale.

   “The one-hectare farm household or so can still be part of the industry. The farm can actually boost its productivity if it joins an alliance of several others and get their aggregated farm managed professionally.” (Melody Mendoza Aguiba)