Aquino admin to stop importing rice in three years

The administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III intends to stop importing rice at a gradual pace over the next three years by focusing on boosting domestic production. “We are projecting that in the next three years, there will be no rice imports. We will try to reduce importation step-by-step by empowering our farmers on ways to increase rice production," Newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Proseso Alcala said in an interview with reporters. The agriculture chief said he would meet with stakeholders, including small farmers, for their feedback on how to improve the country’s rice program. "I cannot say that we will outright stop importation. But we should be able to determine if there is really that need to import," he said. “We’re not here to cover for the department’s previous miscalculations, if there were any," Alcala said, noting that the government has been spending billions of pesos under the Rice Sufficiency Program “but we are still the biggest importers." Frisco Malabanan, director of the Ginituang Masaganang Ani Rice Program, earlier said that the Agriculture Department would push for the planting of hybrid rice in 2011 to reduce imports and attain self-sufficiency by 2013. Instead of 376,928 metric tons, the rice program would increase the volume of hybrid rice to 377,000 MT for crop year 2011 to reduce imports estimated at $144.84 million to $209.11 million, or P6.5 billion to P9.4 billion, Malabanan said. The DA intends to plant hybrid rice on 505,623 hectares of land in 2011 and harvest up to 2.66 million MT under the commercial hybrid rice program. —Nikka Corsino/VS, GMANews.TV