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Archives
Dec. 1-31, 2003
Year of the Rice
Rice and World Poverty and Hunger
by Junelyn S. de
la Rosa
Welcome Remarks delivered
by Dr. Fernando A. Bernardo, vice chairman, The Asia
Rice Foundation on 12 December 2003 during the Press
Briefing of the International Year of Rice 2004
We have not heard of massive famine in
Asia in recent decades. But the Bengal famine of 1943
in Eastern India was due to the cut off of rice imports
from Burma which was occupied by the Japanese and a
cyclone that destroyed rice crops. More than 1.5 million
people died.
In the 1870s, drought in Southern India
caused famine that took 5 million lives. During the
same period, a famine in China killed more than 9 million
people. Even in recent years, we occasionally hear of
massive hunger in Africa because of war and crop failures.
Famine causes death and disease, destruction
of livestock and seeds, even crime and social disorder.
Massive famine has been averted in recent
decades because of the green revolution due to breakthroughs
in rice and wheat research, and food relief programs
of the United Nations and industrialized countries.
But globalization under WTO, if we are not careful,
could unintentionally cause serious rice shortages,
and hunger if not death of millions in India, China,
and even in smaller countries like the Philippines.
Because rice farming is hardly profitable and competitive
without government subsidy, many rice farmers are shifting
to other crops or selling their land for conversion
to subdivisions and other purposes. Land resources devoted
to rice production is decreasing, but population continues
to increase. In the Philippines alone,, we are increasing
by 1.6 million babies every year. This yearly increase
in population is equivalent to one additional megacity
of people to feed every year, but if our rice land is
decreasing, where shall we get rice for our increasing
population?
Even if we have money to import rice in
case of a serious drought, flood, or a major rice disease
epidemic, where can we buy rice? Only about 4% of rice
is traded internationally because most are grown and
consumed by each country. This 4% of excess for export
would not cover major rice shortages in India or China
in case of serious drought, flood, or rice pest and
diseases outbreaks. In other words we cannot allow our
farmers to shift from rice to other more profitable
crops without worrying about food security because the
world reserves for exports is very thin.
To the Filipinos, and most Asians, rice
is life itself. The Filipino values, and culture, and
our politics are interwoven with rice. As a matter of
fact, any administration that suffers from serious rice
shortages and increases in the price of rice will certainly
lose the next election.
Next year will be the International Year
of Rice (IYR) as declared by the United Nations. That
makes 2004 very special for rice for the first time
in World history. Rice is the staple food for more than
half of the world, and the International Year of Rice
focuses the world’s attention on the importance
of rice. But to the small rice farmers, the year 2004
will just be another year of struggle to make sure he
makes a decent harvest, and his family does not suffer
from hunger. To the small farmers who dominate rice
farming in Asia, the International Year of Rice means
nothing because to them since childhood, every year
is a year of rice. To them rice is life itself. Rice
means survival. They must continue to struggle and provide
enough for the needs of their families.
It therefore behooves us, leaders in government
and the private sector, including the Asia Rice Foundation
which I represent in this occasion, to do something
significant and meaningful not only in 2004, but in
all the years to come, so that we can make a difference
in the lives of rice farmers. Let us take a vow to work
together to make the world secure from poverty and hunger.
Let us support rice research and development to make
more breakthroughs in rice production, to produce more
rice profitably in declining land resources without
increasing land degradation and pollution. If there
is anything that industrialized countries could do to
help, it is to increase support rather than reduce support
for rice research and development.
Hopefully, there will be no more famine
in India, China, Africa, or any country in the future.
But there is only one thing we can be sure of: It is
only with rice science that the teeming millions of
Asia could be saved from widespread poverty and hunger.
In this country, let us treat the International
Year of Rice with more passion and sense of purpose,
because IYR only dramatizes issues of poverty, hunger
and social conflicts. 
December 1-31 2003 Articles:
:: Philippines plans for 2004 International Year of Rice
:: BAR Chronicle wins 2003 Gawad Oscar Florendo Award
:: Year of the Rice: Rice and World Poverty and Hunger
:: Committee to review DA websites created
:: This year's PANTAS awardee
:: First GM pigeonpea: Farmers' arm to productivity
::: More December 2003 articles :::
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