Selections From The Book (3): Doc Ciel Says, “Food Security, Not Rice Self-Sufficiency!”

Some 5 months ago, President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr approved the “Masagana Rice Industry Development Program” (MRIDP) [June 2023? Sorry, PH media are vague on the exact date]. The MRIDP calls for a “97.5% rice sufficiency in 5 years.” 
(“Food Security” from istockphoto.com, “Govt Intervention” from PhilStar, as cited below)

Bella Cariaso says (“Government Intervention Needed For 97.5 Percent Rice Sufficiency” (03 June 2023, PhilStar, philstar.com):

A farmers’ group yesterday urged the government to implement the interventions needed to achieve 97.5-percent rice sufficiency in five years, as envisioned by President Marcos through the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program…

“We’ve been talking over and over that it (rice sufficiency) is achievable if we have the right programs like fertilization, use of hybrid rice, irrigation. We need all of these,” [Danilo] Fausto said. … Our local palay production dropped last year as there was a problem on the use of fertilizers because of a spike in the prices. (Mr Fausto is President of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc.)

Aha! Ex-NEDA chief Cielito F Habito (Doc Ciel) is publishing his economics book No Free Lunch (Essays On Philippine Agriculture), coming out Friday, 01 Dec 2023 – and he debunks (sorry BBM Sir!) “rice self-sufficiency” for the Philippines!

In his book, Doc Ciel says:

I’ve never said that the Philippines cannot be rice self-sufficient, as scientists and others often insist. The issue has always been: at what cost?

No, PH cannot afford to go after rice self-sufficiency!

With the right science and inputs, we can squeeze as much rice as we can from our much smaller rice area relative to our Greater Mekong Subregion neighbors, and yes, be self-sufficient – but it would still cost much higher than our neighbors can provide that rice to us.

For PH, Masagana Dream: Sufficient in rice. Unfortunately, Masagana Wishful Thinking: Deficient in thinking intelligent economics!

It makes far better sense to produce as much as we can only to the extent that its cost is comparable to that of our rice surplus neighbors.

In rice, PH has to add cost of production – and subtract its dream of self-sufficiency!

But we Filipinos are stubborn, aren’t we?! Doc Ciel says:

…Maintaining our age-old policy of shielding the domestic rice market via import restrictions will only keep permitting our domestic rice prices and production costs to remain up to twice higher than what other Southeast Asians pay for the staple.

You can quarrel with Doc Ciel, but not with Economics.

Doc Ciel says:

I have no doubt that with proper efficiency improvements, we have enough competitive farms and scientific resources to permit us to still produce the bulk of our rice needs, even at or close to Southeast Asian prices that are [today] only about half ours.

Doc Ciel’s rice economics is clear to me: Efficiency, not Sufficiency!

Government is not supposed to be helping our farmers persist as high-cost producers; it’s supposed to help them become high productivity, low-cost and competitive ones.

Wake up, sleepy PH Government; wake up, sleepy PH Agriculture!@517