Is Rice Importation A Solution To The Rice Shortage In The Philippines

Rice is important to our economy here in the Philippines. It is part of our culture because most of the Filipinos said that no meal would be complete without rice. Many poor farmers only depends on planting crops such as rice as their way of living which they will use to support their family, that is why they expect a lot like assistance/funds from the Government. This February 2019, our President Rodrigo Duterte had signed a law which is the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).

Its goal was to give chance for poor Filipino consumers to have a high quality of rice in a much affordable price. But how about/what will happen to our poor farmers? This law was supposed to help them but what’s happening is seemed to be the opposite.The RTL’s goal was also to get tarrifs from our rice importers from other countries which they will use to support our farmers.

Most of our farmers said that this was not enough.

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An example was the farmers from Nueva Ecija, they said that they are selling their rice for as low as P7 per kilo. This affects them so much because their income will not be enough for the needs of their family and most of them said that planting rice is their only way of living and until now, they are still having a hard time facing it because the rice that they are selling like the NFA rice is in low demand today. Because of the law, most Filipino consumers are now buying imported rice in the market because not only its price was affordable, its quality was also much way better than our local rice.

Others said that this may result to poverty to many people and a possible more crime rates in our country. This is also the reason why rice storehouses in our country are always almost full because the local rice like NFA rice are not being sold to Filipino consumers.The challenge today is how we can help to the crisis in our own simple ways. We as the younger generation/students can also make part in making solutions such as we can create and promote awareness to people about the problem we are experiencing. We can also help them by directly buying rice from our local rice farmers/producers to help them sell their products.

For me, the RTL is not a good solution to the rice shortage in our country because our farmers are having a crisis and a hard time making enough income to support their families because a lot of the Filipino consumers would prefer to buy the imported rice than our local rice because its price is cheaper and its quality was also the ones which most Filipinos are looking for.