Magtanim hindi biro

Rice, to Filipinos, is as basic and essential as air and water.

- DOREEN G. YU

It is thus a high crime that we cannot feed our own people, and it is a national shame that we rely on farmers in Vietnam and Thailand and India to feed our people – at exorbitant cost. That a worker who earns a daily wage of P610 must pay P50 or more for a kilo of rice indicates the colossal failure of the government’s agricultural policies. Implementing a maximum SRP of P58 per kilo for imported rice just proves that the reduced tariff didn’t at all benefit consumers, as those economic bright boys claimed.

Bureaucrats talk endlessly about helping our farmers, but in reality, our farmers hardly benefit from all their programs with tongue-twisting acronyms. The reality of farming is on the ground, out in the fields, and that is where our officials – from the Cabinet secretary down to all his usecs and asecs – must go, talk to and – most importantly – listen to our farmers.

I get my rice from a farmers’ association in Tarlac, now sold under the brand name Hiraya, available in Jasmine, Dinorado, Angelica and Sinandomeng varieties at selected Robinsons and Metro supermarkets (yes, this is an unabashed plug). It’s not cheap – it’s not P29 a kilo – but it’s affordable and of good quality, and I am sure it’s a product of the hard work of Filipino farmers. As our “Food for Thought” columnist advocates, I decided to try to get to know the farmers who plant and harvest these precious grains.