Philippines

General information

• GNI per capita PPP$, 2000: 4,220
• Internal renewable water resources: 323 km³
• Incoming water flow: 0 km³
• Main food consumed: rice, sugar, honey, wheat, roots and tubers, oil and fat
• Rice consumption, 1999: 99.7 kg milled rice per person per year

The Philippines is an archipelago of some 7,100 islands located between 4° and 21° N latitude and 116° and 127° E longitude. The country is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Sulu and Celebes Seas to the south, and the Bashi Channel to the north.

It is in AEZ 3, characterized as the warm humid tropics. The climate is tropical marine, that is, mainly moderated by the surrounding seas, with a November to April northeast monsoon and a May to October southwest monsoon. Climate varies within the country because of a mountainous topography. There are four general climatic types: (1) two pronounced seasons, dry from November to April and wet the rest of the year (Central Luzon, western Visayas), (2) absence of a dry period, but with maximum rains from November to January (eastern Luzon, eastern Visayas, and northeastern Mindanao), (3) dry from November to February and wet the rest of the year (central Visayas, western Bicol, northern Mindanao), and (4) more or less even rainfall distribution thoughout the year (central Mindanao).

The population reached 75 million in 1999. The Philippines (1985-95) has one of the highest population growth rates in Asia at 2.4% per year. However, this growth rate is declining compared with the average of 2.8%/yr in 1975-85. Urbanization has been rapid in recent years and 57% of the population lives in urban areas. Employment in the agricultural sector accounts for 40% of the 31 million-person labor force. Arable land per capita is one of the lowest in developing Asia at just 0.075 ha per capita. The incidence of malnutrition among children age 2-5 (as measured by weight for age) is estimated at 30%.

Recent developments in the rice sector
Agriculture, including forestry and fisheries, contributes about one-sixth of total GDP. Rice constitutes about 30% of total crop area harvested. In the late 1980s and early '90s, maize was the most widely planted crop in the country, but maize area declined to about 2.5 million hectares in the late 1990s. Meanwhile, total harvested rice area reached about 3.8 million ha in 1995 and 4.0 million hectares in 1999 and 2000, its highest level in history despite some loss of agricultural land because of urbanization, land conversion, and industrialization.

Rice is the staple food of Filipinos in most parts of the country, although maize also contributes 20% or more of caloric intake from cereals in parts of Visayas and Mindanao (in Cebu, calories from maize and rice are approximately equal). For the country as a whole, rice accounts for 41% of total caloric intake and 31% of total protein intake.

Because of the Green Revolution package of seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation, national average rice yields doubled from about 1.5 t/ha in the late 1960s to 3.0 t/ha by 1990. Yield from 1985 to 1999 increased at a low rate of 0.9% compared with growth of 2.3% and 2.4% in the late 1960s and early '80s, respectively. These growth rates are attributed to the availability of seeds of high-yielding rice varieties and farm inputs such as fertilizer and irrigation facilities, and the increase in area cultivated among others. Further, the Philippines temporarily achieved self sufficiency in the early 1980s, but it now imports about 10% of its annual consumption requirements. Despite these imports, rice prices for consumers are the highest in developing Asia (as are farm-gate prices for farmers). The high level of prices is enforced through an import monopoly by the National Food Authority, which also procures paddy from farmers at a support price and stabilizes prices at both farm-gate and retail levels.

Rice environments
In the mid-1990s, about 61% of rice land was irrigated, 35% was rainfed lowland, and the remainder was upland. (As of 2000, of the 4-million-hectare rice area excluding the upland area planted to rice, about 67% is irrigated and the rest is rainfed.) Much of the country's irrigated rice is grown on the central plain of Luzon, the country's ricebowl. Major rice-producing parts of the country are Mindanao (23%), Central Luzon (16%), Cagayan Valley (15%), western Visayas (13%), southern Tagalog (10%), and Ilocos Region (9%). The rest comes mainly from various coastal lowland areas and gently rolling erosional plains, such as in Mindanao and Iloilo. Rainfed rice is found in the Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon, in Iloilo Province, and on the coastal plains of Visayas and Ilocos in northern Luzon. Upland rice is grown in both permanent and shifting cultivation systems scattered throughout the archipelago on rolling to steep lands.

Because of their higher profitability for farmers, modern high-yielding varieties account for the vast majority of rice production, with less than 10% of production coming from traditional varieties. Labor use on rice is relatively low compared with that in many developing Asian countries at about 60 person-days/hectare/crop. Some of the reasons for the relatively low labor use are the widespread use of direct seeding and the mechanization of land preparation and threshing in many parts of the country.

Production constraints
Along with Indonesia, rice production in the Philippines is more severely affected by El Niño events than in other Asian countries, and this led to a large contraction of production in 1998. The major effect of El Niño is a reduction in area harvested, and rainfed areas are the most affected. Irrigated areas are also affected, however, when water availability in dams declines. The Philippines also bears the brunt of many damaging typhoons coming in from the Pacific Ocean. There is also concern about the deterioration of irrigation systems at least partially because of a lack of funding for maintenance. Rainfed lowland rice suffers from uncertain timing of arrival of rains, and drought and submergence-often in the same fields over the course of a single season or in different fields within a farm over the same season. Weeds, drought, diseases (blast), acidic soils, and soil erosion are major problems of upland rice in the Philippines.

Production opportunities
At the forefront of rice research and development (R&D) in the country is the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), which was created in 1985. It is a government-owned and controlled corporation attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA) located in Central Luzon and with branch stations in the northern and southern parts of the country.

It seeks to improve the economic conditions of small farmers and, more specifically, to develop and implement a national rice R&D program, sustain gains made in rice production, solve site-specific problems of the rice industry, and direct and coordinate activities of all agencies in the country working on rice in line with its six major programs: direct-seeded rice, transplanted irrigated lowland rice, hybrid rice, rice-based farming systems for adverse environments, policy research and advocacy, and technology promotion and development.

PhilRice pursues these activities in partnership with the member-agencies of the National Rice R&D Network, located in the country's major rice-growing zones. With the PhilRice Central Experiment Station serving as its secretariat, the Network is composed of the PhilRice branch stations, DA-regional research centers, and the premier universities of the country engaged in agricultural research and education, such as the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), Central Luzon State University (CLSU), Leyte State University (LSU, formerly the Visayas State College of Agriculture or ViSCA), and the Central Mindanao University (CMU). A major activity of PhilRice and the Network is yield and adaptability trials of rice lines developed by Philippine-based public or private institutions working on rice varietal improvement.

Some economic gains at the farm level may be expected through further adoption of direct wet-seeded rice and mechanization of rice production (from seeding/transplanting to postharvest operations). Rainfed lowland rice gains may result from some crop intensification in more favorable areas, further adoption of direct dry-seeded rice, and the development of new rice varieties adapted to rainfed lowland stresses. Upland rice systems in the Philippines are the least sustainable, and future system maintenance will require policies and technologies that encourage a slowing of deforestation rates, the control of soil erosion, and the conversion of cereal production systems into mixed systems with perennial crops on sloping lands.

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