Now its rice from Cambodia [Philippines to import rice from Cambodia]

Manila Bulletin

(Editor's note: We just signed a MOA to import rice from Cambodia, a country that went through turbulent years and much smaller than ours, as noted by the author.)

Our government recently signed a MOA on rice trade with the Kingdom of Cambodia to pave the way for NFA to import rice from the kingdom for two years. Cambodia has emerged as a major rice producer in the ASEAN region. The new source of rice to NFA as buyer/importer had experienced several turbulent periods: 1) In April, 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh and established a reign of terror that killed an estimated 1.7 M people and hundreds of thousands fled to refugee camps in Thailand, 2) Phnom Penh was captured by Vietnamese troops in January, 1979, and 3) under UN supervision a peace agreement was signed in October, 1991.
A lot smaller than our nation
And the wonder of it all is this: Cambodia has a land area of 69,898 square miles smaller than the Philippines' 115,000 square miles, and our population of 99 M is clearly bigger by 84 M.
Has Cambodia discovered a new rice strain that can produce 100 percent more than our "miracle" or hybrid rice? We can EXPORT rice now according to a boast by our top agriculture officials that needs small proof.
Plant-water-soil management
No Sir! Cambodia's glowing success is made possible by SRI (system of rice intensification) introduced by Yang Saing Koma to a handful of farmers in 2000. There's no tall tale in this process, but a simple application of effective PLANT-WATER-SOIL management. In 1997 Koma founded CEDAC (Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture).
And last year, Koma won the prestigious Magsaysay Award for his contribution to farming technology in Cambodia.
A different breed

But our top agriculture officials/technicians are of a different breed. First, they tell the whole world they have a surprise package that boosts self-sufficiency in rice production. Second, they ask the government to export rice now.
Then last month, our timid government quietly announced that there's a need to import 187,000 metric tons, to have a buffer stock kuno. The MOA we recently signed to import rice from Cambodia is a kind of confession there are petty liars among agriculture officials who boasted of exporting rice, a new method in bureaucratic contradiction or confusion. Can one country really export and import rice without damaging PLAIN LOGIC?
Non-performers out!
The move in certain sectors calling for a form of discipline in the agriculture department asserts the old logic - non-performers need a new job outside the government.
Years ago, (in the fifties and sixties), our college of agriculture in Los Baños (UP) and an older school in Nueva Ecija were the pride of the nation. Students from Thailand and neighboring countries studied here and were impressed by all their professors with a cluster of PhDs to show from noted US universities. The foreign students spoke pidgin English but applied themselves wholeheartedly to classroom/field studies.
Revised by foreign students
And what they learned from us was probably revised by them with astounding results. We can ask CHED to list the number of colleges of agriculture as part of SUCs (state universities and colleges). It's incredible if we count the failures through the years in rice production despite their number.
Let's go back to Cambodia farming technology. To teach it to farmers the teacher has no need of a PhD in agriculture. It's a simple method - EFFECTIVE plant-water-soil management.
Important factor
What we lack here is the most important factor in rice farming - efficient irrigation system from January to December. Ours is plainly a case of flood waters to destroy rice farms in July, August, and September; then lack of water in January, February, March, April, May, November, and December or 10 months of lack of farm management.
Cambodia's farmers have no college credentials
Cambodia's plant-water-soil management method cannot be taught to farmers by the agriculture department and colleges. In Cambodia, more than 100,000 rice farmers now use SRI (system of rice intensification).
For more than 15 years before June, 2010, irrigation contractors in the Philippines either abandoned the work or built inferior canals prone to erosion. Billions spent for these projects simply cannot be recovered. This shameless waste alone moved us to import rice, this time from a country much smaller than ours. It's hard to ignore envy! (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).