When Farmers Fall Victim to Low Tariffs

Cabacan, located in the Mindanao River basin, must contend with both drought and flooding. With its dense network of waterways and low-lying terrain, the area is prone to annual floods. Reports indicate that floods in July last year affected 5,185 families and over 15,000 mu of farmland in Cabacan.

After concluding our visit to the municipal government, Robin accompanied us to Barangay Cuyapon. He explained that the 15,000 mu of flooded land included parts of Cuyapon and neighbouring villages. The sharp drop in yields from waterlogged fields has become a major headache for the local government.

II. Who Profits from the Rising Price of a Staple?

I shook my head. Robin explained that ‘unli’ is short for ‘unlimited’, so ‘unli rice’ means unlimited servings of rice. “When we eat rice at a restaurant, we eat more than we do at home, just to make the meal feel worth the money. We Filipinos simply love rice; we never tire of eating it at every meal.”

Data shows that in 2023, the average Filipino consumed 151.3 kg of rice, more than double the per capita consumption in China during the same period. Scholars such as Huang Zongzhi argue that China has undergone a “hidden agricultural revolution” since the 1980s, driven directly by a shift in food consumption patterns: as incomes rose, the proportion of grain, vegetables, and meat in the diet shifted from 8:1:1 to 4:3:3. Put simply, people are eating fewer staple grains.

In the Philippines, however, rice remains the primary choice for filling one’s stomach. According to data from the Philippine Department of Agriculture, spending on rice accounts for nearly 10% of the average household budget, a figure that can rise to 20% for impoverished families.

A report by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) analyses that lower-income groups consume an average of 7.1 kg more rice per person annually than higher-income groups, while rural residents consume 11.47 kg more than those in cities. The poorer a Filipino is, the more dependent they are on rice—perhaps this is the other meaning behind ‘unli rice’.

The situation has evolved in a direction completely opposite to the government’s projections. In January this year, the average price of both imported and local rice in the Metro Manila area exceeded 55 pesos per kg (approximately 7.2 yuan per kg). The Philippine Department of Agriculture declared a food security state of emergency, promising to release reserve rice into the market and passing a price cap on imported rice.

If supply has increased, why have prices risen instead of falling? It seems the economic supply-and-demand curve failed to account for the complexities of reality.

Middlemen serve as the bridge between farmers and consumers, but they also operate as market entities profiting from rice trades. The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) points out that as the profit margins for wholesale and retail continue to grow, this group has become the biggest beneficiary of the Rice Tariffication Law, reaping most of the gains from cheap imported rice.

In February this year, a fraud case was exposed in Bulacan province, adjacent to Manila, where old rice was mixed with imported rice and sold under the label of ‘new rice’.

Beyond the lack of regulation, collusion between politicians and business interests has further exacerbated market chaos. In February 2024, the National Food Authority (NFA) sold off stock intended for national reserves to private companies at 25 pesos per kg. When the incident came to light, over 100 officials were suspended. Such incidents have left the NFA consistently ranked as one of the most corrupt government agencies in the Philippines.

III. Food Security and Food Sovereignty

Bello argues that the escalating drive toward rice trade liberalisation is the root cause of the food crisis. To him, the Rice Tariffication Law is effectively a death sentence for Philippine rice farming; local produce simply cannot compete fairly with imports from Vietnam and Thailand, which benefit from heavy subsidies. In the long run, he warns, this will deal a devastating blow to smallholders.

He has called on the Philippine government to restart trade negotiations to curb the dumping of foreign agricultural products. Simultaneously, he urges a deepening of land reform, increased agricultural investment, and improvements to rural infrastructure—such as irrigation and roads—to genuinely incentivise small-scale production.

Long before this policy shift, various rural development organisations in the Philippines had already begun empowering smallholders, such as the Southeast Asian Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment (SEARICE).

Since its founding in 1977, SEARICE has supported farmers in collecting landraces and breeding new varieties. By promoting the exchange of agroecological techniques, they aim to reduce farmers’ reliance on commercial seeds and inputs, allowing them to regain fundamental autonomy over production.

On 8 April, we had the privilege of visiting Eddie Sasi, a farmer-breeder who has collaborated with SEARICE for 22 years. Now 65, Eddie and his family live in the countryside of Pres Roxas, Mindanao, where they manage approximately 2 hectares of paddy fields without using any chemical inputs. His rice fields, fruit trees, vegetables, and a fish pond are arranged in a balanced layout, forming a self-sustaining closed-loop system.

“When the summer fruits are ripe, come visit me and eat for free! But if you want to take some away, you’ll have to pay,” Eddie invited us warmly. His diversified planting across 2 hectares provides his family with healthy food, eliminating the need for external purchases and allowing him to sell surplus produce to his neighbours. This state of food sovereignty is deeply envied by our colleagues.

However, this is far from the norm for Philippine smallholders. Taking rice as an example: the Philippines has 1.1 million small-scale rice farmers and agricultural workers with plots of less than one hectare, most of whom are “net consumers” of rice. I learned from Robin that some farmers choose to grow high-yield varieties, selling the new harvest only to buy rice with a better taste and texture from the market. For them, the fluctuations in rice prices over the past year have been nothing short of a fatal blow.

For Eddie, choosing which variety to plant is not a binary choice. Through training at SEARICE field schools, he has mastered breeding skills. Whether he wants high yield, superior taste, early maturity, or disease resistance, he can experiment with breeding the specific traits he desires rather than relying on commercial market varieties.

SEARICE’s seed bank, located a few kilometres away, provides essential support for Eddie. It houses over 800 traditional rice varieties and more than 300 new varieties developed by farmer-breeders. Any farmer collaborating with SEARICE can apply to test or breed these varieties. This year, Eddie’s farm is testing the adaptability of 11 upland rice varieties. If they perform well, they will be fully planted or used for further breeding.