Update on broken rice or binlid
The heart-rending scene of poor people, including children and the physically disabled, lining up for six hours every day for two kilos of rice is a warning of a simmering social volcano.
But the worst is yet to come, says Duncan Macintosh, spokesman of the International Rice Research Institute in a media interview shared with us by a friend.
Macintosh said, “Our concern is for October and November. Were very concerned that the rice production and supply situation in the Philippines may get worse in October and November. “
He explained: “The Philippines has two croppings of rice a year. Right now is the first crop and they’re harvesting the first crop in May or late in April so right now the Philippines will get a lot of rice from domestic supply. In June they will plant the second crop and that will be harvested in September or early October. By the time you get to the end of October and November there’s no more crops, the harvest has been eaten and they have to wait for may the following year for extra rice. They cannot get from the international market, the domestic supply is exhausted, what will happen?
Macintosh said a lot will depend on the harvest in September or October. “The very key thing we need to watch is the second crop. The first crop is harvesting now, we have to watch two things: one, the hot season that’s coming now in Asia, in Southeast Asia the dry season as everybody knows it. Dry season before the monsoon sets. That’s in southeast Asia and India.
“If because of climate change the dry season is much longer than normal and the monsoon comes light, that’s a serious problem. That means the second crop will be affected
“ If we have a good monsoon then the second problem to watch out for is the typhoon season, that will come in October, September, October, November. (Typhoon) come through the Philippines, through Vietnam to Southern China as they do very often. That will have an impact on rice production.
“If they come up through the Bay of Bengal to Bangladesh to Eastern India that will also have an impact. So we have to watch the weather, watch the monsoon season. And watch for the dry season it will be a very dry dry season.
Macintosh gave brief overview why we are where we are today. He said the situation started in 2004 when China went to the international market for their rice needs because of domestic production problem.
“So in 2004, two things started to happen, the price of rice internationally started to go up and you have to ask why. That’s because the international stockpile of rice in the world – every country has a stockpile of rice – that stockpile started to go down because China and other countries were buying from other countries.
“It’s simple economics, when you see your supply of product goes down, the price goes up, supply goes down, you have to pay more to get that product, same way for rice. So our international stockpile is going down and the price is going up. This continued quietly in 2004 and 2005, 2006 then in 2007 that’s when things really took off and you started to see the price of rice and the price of wheat and the price of corn all going up. , because at that time after three years the stockpile of rice in the world was very small. We had eaten all the rice we had in the world.
“So now the international stockpile of rice is at the lowest point in 30 years. The last time we were like this was in the early 1970’s And the price of rice in the 70’s was also at $1,000 a ton. So now the question is, can we increase rice production in Asia to excess so we can start to increase the stockpile
“ There’s about enough rice in Asia now to 30 days, before it was more than 2 months supply. Now we have to wait for the harvest to come to go into the market. Before importing countries like the Philippines they would buy from the international stockpile in the market and sell it straight to their market. Now there is no stockpile to buy from, Vietnam has stopped exporting, Thailand has stopped exporting, India has stopped exporting
“If you’re looking to buy rice in the market right now, there is no rice to buy but its very important to realize this started three, four years ago and the main reason apart from the shrinking stockpile is we have been too complacent, forgetting about agriculture
“Agriculture is food production. We must invest in agriculture, we must invest in research and science and infrastructure. In many countries in Asia, Philippines included, for example irrigation for rice production has been deteriorating the quality is not as good because they have not invested. They did not build new dams for irrigation, they did not do maintenance. So we need to invest in these things, we have not done that for more than a decade so today we are paying the price of the lack of attention to agriculture.
“So that’s the issue of the story. Very simple. “
Mukhang naguumpisa nang bumukol sa mga tao ang mga pinag-gagawa nang gobyernong pagnanakaw mula nuong 2004 (jokjok Bolante) …Talagang papatayin tayo nitong si GMA…Lintik lang ang walang ganti…Humanda ka !
In Ilocos Norte, the governor said the province can make four rice harvest in a year with irrigation. But where is the rehab money for the ditches. A ditch was built through our farm 2 decades ago. It never saw water. Rice there was never a problem. One reason perhaps is that most of them there are streaming for Hawaii and the mainland and learn to eat bread.
IRRI, according to another blogger, earlier reported the CARP beneficiaries improved a lot better. But McKintosh admits now there is no more rice around and even blames everybody for it short of saying the CARP beneficiaries are lazy.
And the government wants to prolong yet the agony of a CARP inflicted famine by insisting to extend it.
The government comes without a solution but remains the root problem.
I believe, the worst is already here. How can get any worser when you already have the worst and most corrupt evil bitch Gloria ever in the history of the Philippines? Philippines has sunken to the lowest one can imagine since 2001. You got a husband who by definition is the biggest pimp in the whore house (Malacanang), and the wife, highly overpaid prostitute, along with their pigs stealing every thing they can get their hands on it. Yeap, it’s here already. Don’t take my words on it, just ask those included in the 26 millions (30% of population) of pinoys in poverty, they’ll tell you that worst is here to stay, at least for them.
There is one stopgap measure to alleviate the coming of the worst sooner. Lets ask the pope to send us shiploads of rice and he may not come here anymore to settle with the confort victims of the priests here. He is in the US now doing just that.
Aren’t we going to congratulate Miriam Santiago? Her brain was shaken after this fall:
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago Monday night suffered a “minor contusion” when she lost her balance while delivering a speech at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City during the birthday celebration of her husband Narciso.
She was taken to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center for treatment that required three stitches on her head.
“She’s at home recovering. Her CT (computer tomography) scan showed no additional injuries,” a staff said. “In fact, she’ll attend the opening of the resumption of Congress on Monday.”
Worst is yet to come? Delubyo na iyan.
Korap Gloria is the worst disaster that could happen in Pinas! We need the best demonologists to exorcise Pinas of this evil tianak.
Whatever factors McKintosh said contributed to the impending rice crisis, the Kapinuyan knows better. It’s Korap Gloria’s fault, nakawin ba naman via Jocjoc ang budget sa fertilizer for a start. Pati budget sa irrigation nawawala. The bitch, because of addiction to power, did not give a damn about the farmers and agriculture. For her, it’s a lot easier to import and make millions for the Pidals!
October is too far away for Pinoys who can’t afford to buy even a salop of rice. Each meal is their focus, not the next days.
The critical months of October/November mentioned by McKintosh are Korap Gloria’s problem. Let the president kuno think of measures to come out of her own mess, or she’ll definitely pay when pinoys find no more rice on the table.
We once had a fairly large rice farm in Camarines Sur bequeathed through generations of relatives before us. Then Napocor cut through the whole length, appropriating a 14-mtr wide no-planting zone which split the property into two, the smaller strip was rendered useless. The payment, at the prevailing market price then, was a pittance.
Then NIA cut through the property again, this time the 10-meter wide irrigation diagonally crossing the Napocor path. The land was cut up into 4 pieces. Farming has ceased to be profitable. We had to sell the land to the town mayor for less than P100/sqm who later sold it to developers (that included Ayala Land) 5 to 10 times our price. Soon everybody in the neighborhood was selling their rice fields to the developers who started building subdivisions, factories, and commercial establishments. The old sleepy farming town produced not a few instant millionaires who spent their newly-acquired wealth on houses and vehicles. At least a few hundred hectares of rice fields are now gone, to give way to development.
Multiply that experience across the archipelago and what do you get? In Laguna and Cavite alone, what before seemed to be endless fields of green lining both sides of SLEX are now mostly subdivisions, golf courses, huge factories and industrial complexes. How many rice producing fields were converted in that stretch alone?
After Marcos’ Masagana 99, absolutely no substantial achievement toward food security was undertaken by succeeding regimes, not even CARP, which seems to have made the situation worse. Certainly not even under this self-acclaimed economist’s term, who believed hard that her own folly of globalization was good enough to ensure, in her own words, “food in every family’s table”.
What a fool. Able-bodied could-have-been-productive people spending six hours just to get their daily share of rice is a big waste considering that these people are the only commodities we seem to be good at exporting.
Stupidity beyond compare.
bitchevil,
Let’s hope the accident somewhat rearranged her brain cells to make her a normal human again.
We will see.
The Law of Karma is working again…next would be GMA.
Miriam Defensor-Santiago has suffered a “misstep” during her husband’s birthday party at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, was caught off-balance, fell, and banged her head against the wall…
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Dati nang off balance yan.
I hope the wall is okay.
Hahahahaha! Ikaw Atty ha. That was a good one.
Hahahaha! Matagal na rin akong duda na headbanger iyang si Miriam e.
Pero bitchevil, sa liit ni Gloria she won’t be hitting the wall. Toilet bowl pa siguro.
Gloria won’t be hitting the wall…it’s the wall that will hit her.
Sa pag-untog niya, baka, mabalanse na ang utak.
Kahit naman di mauntog si Brenda, dati nang brain damaaged iyan. ‘Kakasuka!
Dati nang brain damaged, pahamak pa!
‘kakaawa naman si mirriam, nahulog sa isteyds at nabukulan sa ulo, tapos kayo ginaganyan ninyo ‘yun tao. kulang na lang eh ligisin ninyo.
sayang, buhay pa pala!
bitchdevil,
mali naman ‘yung “minor contusion” na report na ‘yan, eh.
nagkaroon si mirriam ng minor confusion dahil medyo naging malinaw ang takbo ng utak niya matapos mauntog sa pader. ‘yun nga lamang bumalik din sa dating takbo ng pag-iisip.
mas malala pa ngayon ang brain damage!
Naku kawawa naman iyong wall. Walang gamot para diyan.
. . . and we thought this is the worst na… unprecedented! one for the records for sure.
hmn, would make the marcoses happy: made their regime’s bloopers look puny. their crimes petty.
hello! for all the academic merits our officials have, does anyone up there, their highnesses, ever had the foresight at least to infer somethings like this is bound to happen? it’s not as if this occurence is rocket science, is it?
. . . or do you just not care about us your people at all?
. . . and we thought this is the worst already… amazing. one for the records for sure.
i bet even the marcoses would be happy. there’s more for them to celebrate about — i.e., besides the recent acquittals on their court cases: with how it is now, their bloopers sure would look puny. their crimes petty.
for all the credentials concerned officials up there have brandished to get in the position where they are now (i wonder if it got to that at all), could not anyone at least had the foresight to infer something like this is bound to happen? . . . or do they really care at all.
If “the worst is yet to come”, what does this make of the recent statements of the all-knowing DND Sec Teodoro when he said that the chances of rice riots happening in Manila is slim because there have been no recorded food riots that have happened in the Philippines ? Here’s an interesting article by an Inquirer columnist, Amando Doronila: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080416-130629/Regime-survival-tops-govt-agenda
In reacting to Teodoro’s “incredible insensitivity”, Mr Doronila says that Teodoro’s statement is “a smug assumption.”
I actually believed that Teodoro joining this trashy government would bring in the much-needed fresh air. Apparently, he stinks as bad as Gloria ! So I do not think Teodoro will be any better even as the head of the DILG. To join Gloria’s Gang, one has to be plain, thick-skinned, indecent, insensitive & most importantly, a moron ! So Teodoro must be an insult to Harvard.
Puro na lang kayo negative. Kaya kayo pumapangit e. Konting positive naman dyan. Hehehe.
Dahil sa ang malaking bahagi ng household budget ay napupunta sa pagbili ng bigas, dapat na talagang magtanim ang mga pinoy ng mga gulay sa sarili nilang bakuran. Kung walang bakuran ay maski sa mga paso, lata, lumang gulong at iba pa. Dapat na magsipag sa pagtatanim para naman makabawas sa budget sa pagkain.
Ang mga gulay na kangkong, alugbati, pechay, dahon ng sibuyas, talong, kamatis, kamote ay mga tanim ko sa paso. May mga tanim din akong malungay pero sa lupa. Kung tutuusin ito ang isa sa dapat pagtuunan ng pansin ng mga LGUs upang mapagaan ng kaunti ang paghihirap ng mga mahihirap na Pilipino. Mamigay sila ng mga libreng buto ng gulay at turuan ang mga tao kung paano gumawa ng compost upang gamiting pataba sa mga tanim.
IBGP–Integrated Bigasan ni Gloria sa Palengke? Ano pa yan?..anong scam na naman?..and imported pa daw ang bigas sa US? Gloria+Teodoro =Two iodoros..(Sugar Honey Iced Taes)Mr. Palengke, where are you!
Rose,
I like your take on the two iodoro. Tindi din ng sense of humor mo. Hahahahahahahaha! Enjoy ako. Thanks! Magandang pang-alis ng inis! 😉
Sinong may sabing matino si Teodoro? Anyone willing to serve a criminal must be one or a wannabe criminal himself. As the old adage goes, “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are!”
Kung matinong tao, I don’t think he can bear to be in the company of crooks. As the Scriptures say, “And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. • • • If therefore ye have not been trust the true riches? • • • No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16: 9, 11, 13)
Mayroon ba bang mas matindi na paghihirap kay sa ngayon? Seguro nga, if gueria stays in power…she will do anything to have that..
..the former mayor of Newark, NJ was just found guilty of corruption..will we ever see anything like that in the Phil.? Sana..an impossible dream? maybe, but a dream is a wish our hearts make..thus it is still possible..let us just keep praying for Kapayapaan, Katarungan and Kaunlaran..in our country..!
Thanks Yuko..Did you read the news that the farmers in the Arroyo hacienda will go to Malacanang like the Sumilao farmers did..I hope and pray that they will win their case…
Sana nga. Frankly, I have heard of the complaints of the farmer there. Lahat pinupuwersa ng mga Pidal na sa kanila din ibigay ang tubo nilang na-produce para daw sa biofuel project na ibinigay sa mga intsik complete with factory in Negros. Hanip din di ba?
Hey, gotta go to bed now. Dami ko kasing translation. Kaya pala ikis-ikis na ang tingin ko. Oyasumi for now.
Kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan????Si brenda!!!! E, tililing na yan matagal na kaya lalo na ngayon at nauntog!. Sana lang maglagay na sila doon ng staff ng taga mental hospital just in case para hindi na sya masyadong magkalat pa sa loob ng tonggress!!!!
Irene, please do not capitalize comments. It’s hard on the eyes. Anyway, even in lower case, readers can see your point.
Additional notes from Duncan Macintosh why there’s a rice crisis:
Then you can add the new things, biofuels, farmers would like to increase their income, so they grow biofuel crops. They stop growing rice so that will decrease their production because what was rice farming area now they’re growing biofuels. Maybe they’re growing vegetablesfor the Chinese market or flowers for Hong Kong or flowers for Singapore or tropical fruits for China but its no longer growing rice for their land. Second climate change, there were snow storms in Southern China, there were bad floods in Java, Indonesia, there were typhoons in Bangladesh at the end of last year. All of these reduced rice productions in these countries in Asia, in China, In Indonesia, in Bangladesh, it is reducing rice production. So you have these modern effects on the stockpile problem but also impacting on this is biofuels and climate change.
All of this is coming together and in what you might call a perfect storm that puts great pressure on rice production in Asia. Rice production, the demand in Asian population is increasing maybe not in Japan but in many countries such as the Philippines. Asia’s population is growing quite small by about 1% maybe 1.5% in each year. So we have to produce 1% or 1.5% more rice each year just to feed the new babies in Asia. We have to grow that rice from less lands because of industrial development, commercial development farmers changing crops. We have to plant from less water, there is less water available in Asia because of economic development, urbanization, golf courses. It takes 2,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of rice in irrigation.
This is a very large amount of water and there is less labor, such as in Japan and all over the world rice farmers are getting older. There are no young people to do rice farming anymore so we have to grow more and more rice every year with less land, less water and less labor. Then you have climate change and biofuels, so that is where we are today.
Remember I wrote about binlid, the broken rice that are used to feed chickens? Check it out here.They are now mixing it with regular rice to increase supply of rice in the market.
Read this:
http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080417-130887
Baka next time, Ellen, darak na ang idagdag. Yuck!
Just wondering why Mackintosh touched lightly on the burgeoning effect of the government’s lack of political will to insist on the use of condoms. Its not his turf but at least he could egg on it to remind some people to quell the church’s efforts to increase baby production. It might be better to allow same sex marriages, a sure zero birth rate.
During a visit to Payatas in 1998, I actually asked one of the residents there why they would not use condoms to avoid having big families. His answer was a practical, “Wala nga kaming perang pambili ng pagkain namin, condom pa. Kung bibigyan kami baka puede pa!”
On the other hand, I doubt if the church will distribute such because of the Biblical taboo on spilling sperms! 😛 Read the story Genesis Chapter 38 9-10.