Greatest Irony! Filipinos Play Key Role In PNG Rice Production

In what could be one of the greatest ironies in our history as a nation, Filipino rice farmers, including the Top Rice Producer, will be in the forefront of the ambitious program of Papua New Guinea to achieve Rice Self-Sufficiency in 10 years.
This is a cruel joke since the Philippines is the second biggest importer of rice in the world, next to the most populous country on earth, China.
It is actually a double whammy because the man who will lead the Filipino team is the former Agriculture Secretary who was ridiculed and insulted when he declared that the Philippines could be Rice Self-Sufficient if the needed interventions are implemented.
That man, of course, is me.
While this may look like a vindication for me, I actually consider this development as historic both for Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.
For Papua New Guinea, this will mark the start of national endeavor to end their dependence on importation of rice, now estimated at 400,000-metric tons every year to feed a country of 10 million.
For the Philippines, this will be a great milestone in ensuring that there will be sustainable rice supply for the country over the next 40 to 50 years, even if rice is planted by Filipinos in a nearby country blessed with vast land mass.
Under this unique program, a Filipino group will lead the Rice Program in partnership with the PNG government which will target Rice Sufficiency for the country.
As soon as the PNG achieves a level of Rice Sufficiency, excess production would be brought home to the Philippines and with an estimated 10-million hectares of vast plains with wide rivers, there is so much area to be planted to rice over the next 40 to 50 years.
It took six years before this program could come this far, with the PNG Government inviting a group of Filipino agriculture experts to steer the 10-year Rice Sufficiency Program covering 100,000-hectares.
This all started when President Rodrigo Duterte, during a meeting with then PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill in Danang, Vietnam instructed me to start an agricultural cooperation program with a country of 46.2-million hectares.
The bigger credit for the start of this project should go to the current Prime Minister, James Marape, and his aggressive International Trade Minister, Richard Maru, who had boldly declared that they would like to liberate their country from dependence on rice importation.
Prime Minister Marape, whom I befriended when I was Agriculture Secretary and he was PNG’s Finance Minister, is determined to lift his people out of poverty by undertaking an ambitious food production program.
As a Filipino, I am deeply honored to be given the task of leading the Rice Self-Sufficiency Program of Papua New Guinea which I believe we could have achieved in the Philippines as well.
Helping me in this project is the Philippines Most Outstanding Rice Farmer, Danilo Arcales Bolos of Tagpos Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija, a former OFW, who holds the record of highest rice yield at 17-metric tons per hectare.
So today, the very simple formula which could have helped the Philippines achieve Rice Self-Sufficiency will now be implemented in another country.
In PNG, the political leaders are aggressive and determined to achieve Rice Self-Sufficiency and the most brilliant move they made to realize this, is let the Agriculture Experts run the whole show with the full support of the political leadership.
This is so unlike in the Philippines where legislators with vested interests, craft policies and dictate the programs to be implemented, the most ridiculous of which was the passage of the Rice Tariffication Law which made the country dependent on importation.
This is now a developing story of one country, Papua New Guinea, benefitting from the mistake of another nation, which, of course, is the Philippines.
#LetFarmersRunTheShow!
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
(Photos of the meeting with Prime Minister Marape and Minister Maru were taken by Roselyn Parillo while the old photos of the Rice Demonstration Farm established by Filipino businessman Jomerito Soliman in Papua New Guinea in 2018 were taken by Diane Faith Garcia.)