Why RP, home to IRRI, is now the world's top rice importer?

(This is a question I came across in the net while reviewing some literature. I know we import rice, but I didn't know that we were elevated? to the top position since 2008! I have no time just yet to blog about this, but just posting the question to encourage every Filipino to ask the same question or related questions, search for answers, and in our own little worlds, in our own little ways, help the Philippines be more food secure, not necessarily 100% self-sufficient. Here are some links to some reasons or attempts to answer the question:)

from Inquirer Analyst Tina Arceo-Dumlao (see links for the full article)

• Government's Neglect of Agriculture. The government is alloting only around 2% of its total budget to Agriculture even while the agriculture sector accounts for close to 19% of the GDP and employs 35% of the labor force.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080425-132556/Why-RP-home-to-IRRI-is-now-the-worlds-top-rice-importer

http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/index.php

from IRRI website (see links below for more information)

• Land Area: The Philippines has around 300,000 square kilometers, of which around 43,000 square kilometers of harvested area are used for rice production. As most of the country is very mountainous and consists of many small islands, suitable land is limited to expand rice production into without affecting wetlands, forests, or areas producing other crops. Urban areas also continue to expand rapidly.
• Population growth: The population of the Philippines is estimated at 97 million. Its annual growth rate of around 2% – among the world’s highest – means that just to keep pace with growing demand the country would have to increase rice production and yield at rates rarely seen in history.
• Infrastructure: Irrigation infrastructure is not used and maintained as efficiently as it could be, thus reducing productivity potential. Transport infrastructure, particularly good-quality roads, is lacking in the Philippines, which affects the transport of rice and hinders the rice trade.

http://beta.irri.org/test/j15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=393&Itemid=100104

http://books.google.com/books/irri?id=stemcfAZ8UwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=&sig=ecPVDrqcBXDMFeFz79tSoCCtkiM#v=onepage&q=&f=false

from PhilRice website (see links below)

• Population over-explosion - high annual population growth rate (2.3%)
• Increasing rice demand - rice is the staple food for more than 90% of the country's population; rice accounts for 41% of average calorie intake (IRRI World Rice Statistics)
• Deceleration in growth rates of palay production - declining land; seasonality
• High cost & risk in production - high costs of inputs; pests & diseases, problem soils, droughts & floods
• Insufficient knowledge on modern technologies - high fertilizer & seeding rates;
• Market constraints - price disturbances; poor farm-to-market roads

http://www.philrice.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10&Itemid=73#import

Edited!

(edited! original shows mama and daddy older; khane younger)

My Experience of a Real Satisfied Life

“Before Christ came into my heart, I had an empty life. Only when He came into my heart that I had joy in life.”

I was born in an ordinary family. However, I had many of the things a teen-ager in my province wanted to have such as girls (who were ordinary like me), many friends, and popularity (at least within my very small and ordinary world). Because of these things I was very happy. However, deep inside me I felt empty.

Despite the pleasure of sex, security of having many friends, and nice feeling of having fans in those days, my life had no meaning. If there is a tree that looks nice in the outside but has a hollow trunk and branches, I was like this tree.

I say this because although I was happy, I had no joy. I had joy only when Christ came into my heart. This joy is real not only when my circumstances are good, but also when my circumstances are bad. The happiness I once had existed only during good times but not during lonely moments.

Joy is an experience the common mind cannot understand because it can only be given by Christ to those He indwells in the heart. Surely, there are many things the world can give us. Joy is not one of them.

(This is a testimony I shared last December 18, 2009 at a Japanese women's fellowship, at the request of their leader.- Marlon)

Launio family

Karen, Rhea, Aida, Esther, Mama, Daddy, Wilbert, Jefferson, Marlon

A Call for Books

(pls. click poster to enlarge)

Dear All,

This is a kind call for books, a call to share in a dream, a call to help encourage reading in our communities, especially the children. It is a small start to a big dream.

We are barely readers ourselves, but we know the value of reading. So we are dreaming of a ministry of putting up a 'public private' or community library where people can read or borrow books, and where children are encouraged to discover the wonder and joy of reading. Apart from the many obvious benefits of reading, the following, in one way or another, inspired us to dream:

1. Books are expensive and not all parents, much as they desire so, cannot afford to buy books for their children;
2. Our provincial and municipal governments, much as they desire to furnish our public libraries, lack the fund to do so;
3. Our University libraries are only for students and alumni;
4. "Filipinos are not book lovers?" (Manila Chronicle, 1987) (Well, this is a matter of opinion, but indeed, relative to the Japanese or Europeans, we can, indeed, be branded as such.) Just as they say we can measure the economic progress of a town by the number of banks in that town, we can probably measure how interested people are with books by the number of bookstores in a town.
5. "One's trash might be another's treasure." For those who can afford books, especially textbooks and children's books, at some point, they might not need them anymore and these books may just be earning dust in the attic. But these used books may be very useful to others. Whoever conceived "Booksale" has done one good thing for the country's readers.
6. Our experience in Japan partly motivated us-- a 5-month kid in church playing with a soft picture book, a town library furnished with all kinds of books for all ages, a private library exhibit where a good Japanese friend brought us, a Japanese mother who is aware of the famous authors of childrens' books worldwide.


Whether interest for books is genetic or cultural, or a racial character or not, it is our fervent desire to contribute a mechanism to encourage our kakailian in the Cordilleras to love reading and enjoy learning.

And so, as the internet resource adviced, "By definition, a library starts with... books! and if you don't have any, you need to get some."

We are therefore starting, by communicating with our blog readers--family, friends and acquaintances-- our dream, and enjoining those who care to share with our dream by considering any of the following:

1. If you have any books of any kind that you think are not being used and you can let go for others' use,
2. If you are working in any school or university where textbooks change every season, and those schools throw old textbooks you think are useful, and still usable,
3. If you have friends, especially foreigners in English-speaking nations who have children, and who may have disposable children's books especially board books, (for our Japanese friends, e-hon board books would be mighty useful as well),
4. If you think there is a good cause in this endeavor, and know private individuals or organizations who give free books,
5. If you have any suggestions that will bring this dream closer to reality,

please give us the favor of sending any information by contacting us at the this email address: ukay2book@yahoo.com or sending the books directly to the following addresses:



for Philippines:
Cheryll C. Launio
c/o Imelda Casiwan
DENR, Diego Silang st.
2600 Baguio city


for USA:
Catalina T. Ballitoc
6709 Hamilton St. Riverdale,
MD 20737



for Canada:
Annabelle E. Banda-ay
222 Balmoral Avenue,
S. Hamilton, ON
L8M 3K7 Canada

for UK:
Winslow B. Casiwan
9B Lanhill Rd., Maida Vale
London W9 2BP England

Alternatively, if you have books but freight cost is too expensive to handle, kindly send us an email with your name and address and we can arrange a collect mail arrangement (possible in US, Canada, and UK i suppose), and in the case of the Philippines, please let us know and we'll see how we can find a way to shoulder the freight cost.

Thank you very much. Have a joyful and blessed New Year ahead. God bless you.

Sincerely,
Cheryll, Marlon and Khane

Khane at 2

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

"How old are you?" "Two." (while raising 5 fingers!)

Siblings

Winston, Winslow, Beveryn, Beverly, Cheryll (from top left to bottom right)