Rice Tariff Crisis? This small town is coping

Rice tariffication? How a small Iloilo town copes with this crisis (1)

With palay prices plummeting to P7.00 per kilo which is 54% of the computed production cost,  the farmers are suffering, worse than ever before.  For every kilo they sell,  they lose P5.85 and so,  not only do they lose their capital for the next crop,  they don't have the rice and money to feed their families.

That while we cannot avoid importation as a result of our joining the world trade organization,  we have slept on our preparations for the eventual entry of imports.  Our wise men were not only unwise,   many of them probably bribed by the traders who now corner the bulk of importation.

Importation is now here and a sad reality.  We cannot just sit down and cry.  We have to act to stave off total disaster,  beginning with the death of rice farming. And this small 6th class Iloilo town, named Bingawan is showing the way to coping and rising above the crisis called rice tariffication law.

Investing in SFRs.

While other towns were busy with highly visible projects,  Bingawan led by its former mayor, the late Zafiro Palabrica and continued by his successor,  his sons,  Matt and now Mark, availed of as many small farm reservoirs (SFR) project of the Department of Agriculture and the Iloilo Provincial Government.  The SFRs are the upstream link of the farming chain in areas and countries where massive and high financed irrigation systems are impractical.  SFRs provide the vital component of farming: water because without water,  there is practically no farming that can be undertaken.  To date,  there are 100 units of SFRs throughout the small town. Water in the SFRs are used to irrigate the rice and high value vegetables grown by the farmers.  Fish like tilapia, hito and bulgan were seeded into the ponds, providing needed protein at a low price to the families in the communities around the SFRs. These component was launched years ago with the support of SEAFDEC and the Iloilo Provincial Government. (to be continued)