do we really have problem about our rice?
@dimarkitekt13 (359)
Philippines
March 30, 2008 4:21am CST
will there really a rice shortage? i think we will have rice shortage if we will just keep importing rice from other country. but i think land development has an issue regarding the production of rice in the philippines, and not only rice but other crops as well. with further development and land conversion i guess time will come that we will really face it.
i guess the only thing that the people, not the government, should make a move, not a prayer, not a rally nor campaign but rather a active participation of people, take note PEOPLE. we should start minimizing the consumption of rice, we need to start controlling our selves in consuming rice, not only rice but as well as all the food, our daily neccessity, power consumption, water, and even for our luxury, especially our our luxury.
and we should stop complaining, our fellow citizen are working abroad and there they work so hard, twice as we work here, it's not that they recieve big salary, but actually it's the same working here. in the other country he expenses are high that is why they spend money wisely, we are proud of them, that they can work abroad but the thing is, we are all the same, that is why in everything they do outside, is as much as we do here inside the country, lucky for us we need not to risk our lives outside our country.
that is why, we all need to cooperate, we first do we need to do before complaining, we may think that only a few benefit from government and then we say that they are corrupt but the thing is we our selves are also corrupt, although it's just in a very little thing but what we do can affect everyone, everyone that is living in this country...
so what i'm saying is we need to help our selves for the sake of others, we should not think about the effort but we should think and do the right thing to uplift everybody from poverty, it may be an idealistic point of view but that is one thing we can do, and the only solution for our own survival. if we cannot help others, how can others help us?
3 people like this
15 responses
@posham (1236)
• Philippines
31 Mar 08
i dunnow, the day i saw the news on tv, they also said something about piles of rice rotting somewhere.. i guess we're just mishandling our resources.. we have Vast lands.. and sometimes we're importing from smaller countries. i guess if there will be more support for farmers, we can be self sustainable.. but truth is, we don't reach out to the farmers of our lands.. the sumilao farmers marched to the capital just to be noticed. i hate the government for not taking care of our country, i hate most of the population for their apathy and i hate myself for doing nothing as well..
@posham (1236)
• Philippines
4 Apr 08
that's not all, they accomplished the walk before i entered high school.. now, it's been more than a year after i graduated college and still, they haven't got the justice they deserve.. what are we doing to our people? what are we doing to our nation? soon enough, the masses are going to starve and bad news is, by the rate we're going - everyone's going to be part of that class with just a handful of elites on top.
@dimarkitekt13 (359)
• Philippines
4 Apr 08
thanks, yeah really, that's is so true. i have my sympathy with them... imagine, from mindanao(if i'm not mistaken) to visayas then to luzon they just walk to really let people and government realize what's going on to their crops. and yet they still being disregarded, due to some other issues(like the what other comment say)...
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
30 Mar 08
This really makes me sad. i am not a rice consumer. i mean my family isnt either. we do not eat rice and it is not included much in out diet. but the news about the shortage and the NFA rice converted to a commercial rice by some retailers are just unfair for our low income brothers.
I am sad because, we are once the number 1 rice producer if not in the world, at least in asia. Now we import our rice! Philippines have taught neighboring countries how to produce rice.. and now we have a shortage!
It could have been better for the country if our government was not neglecting this sector. Our fellow countrymen deserved more service from these officials who seemed so busy targetting better and higher positions than doing what is right for those who voted for them :( Its such a sad fact that even our own people - is mistreating us.
@dimarkitekt13 (359)
• Philippines
31 Mar 08
that is exactly true... instead of helping each other, they are just making issues and scandal to bring down one another, to make them become a hero.
they should not make the issue bigger and bigger, instead they should concentrate on helping the president of not about her corruption, well of we should tolerate that.
anyway, i did really realize that even rice now have an issues, i only saw that in tv a few days weeks ago.
our farmers have their campaign about land reform and yet some wholesaler is making issues regarding rice. imagine they mixed the NFA rice with other variety just to have a bigger income. how's stupid and selfish.
@checapricorn (16061)
• United States
5 Apr 08
I feel sad when I heared about this and when I checked it online..We cant deny it that we are really in shortage of rice! I hope everyone will just forget politics here and help hand in hand to solve this major problem in our country! To think a lot of our dream kababayan is rice consumers! What a pity for the poor family like me...Its very depressing indeed!
@Gheeowem (23)
• Philippines
31 Mar 08
Theres no rice shortage...theres an anomaly on this issue.You have your point,and its right we have to help others to help us.But the thing is theres always big issue after the other.There are fertilizer scam,Zte scam,political killings etc.Those issues were used to cover another issue and so on...Did you notice that?All we remember is the last issue to be the talk of the town.
@dimarkitekt13 (359)
• Philippines
1 Apr 08
yeah, i noticed that. but my primary concern is how to help our selves not to import rice or any other raw products from the other country, it's not about we cannot supply rice to our selves but it's a matter of discipline.
@dimarkitekt13 (359)
• Philippines
4 Apr 08
i guess not. i think it was started, as what the other comments say, when some people ask something from the government, their campaign is to walk from mindanao to luzon just to tell all the filipino citizens and the government about the crops and rice production as well as the land reform program. i guess that's how it started, and ZTE just came to cover that issue and now, and it was brought back bay other much bigger issue. that is the rice shortage.
@ethel52776 (146)
• Philippines
3 Apr 08
i think not only the philippines is experiencing rice shortage. most asian countries also have the same problem though i am not sure that is the root cause. i think suppliers are only keeping their stocks and waiting for the price to get even higher and when that time comes, they will sell their stocks at a much much higher price for them to earn more and not thinking the people who can not afford anymore to buy rice.
@subha12 (18441)
• India
31 Mar 08
i think rice may be the problem in your country. but worldwide the consumption is more than the production. so we thing there are inflation in almost every country and price rice of every food items.it seems the production has not increased as per the demand.i think we all should try methods to make the situation better.
@rsa101 (38126)
• Philippines
30 Mar 08
Yes all of what you said is true we should all participate or save our own staple food. It is sad that we are having these crisis when in fact we are supposed to be one of the top rice producers before. That is the reason that IRRI was founded in our country because we were such a good producers. Also our unscrupulous rice traders are also the reason behind this crisis they are trying to hoard to dictate the prices they want in the market creating problems to make the demand look high enough for everyone. There are many factors that can be attributed to this problem and most of it can really resolved on its own if we just try to cooperate with one another.
@checapricorn (16061)
• United States
31 Mar 08
I agree with you dimarkitekt13..if we want change it must start within us..our family! If everyone will do it, what a wonderful world..
@polofield32 (346)
• Philippines
30 Mar 08
I believe that there really is a rice shortage in the Philippines. This is not a new problem though. We've been having this problem for a very long time already. Remember that time when Mount Pinatubo just erupted? Well, of course, that was not the only time we have experienced something like this. Another cause of this rice shortage is the lack of agricultural land. Most of our agricultural lands have been converted to residential, commercial, recreational and industrial lands. I am very much traveled and everytime I go places, I remember how they were few years ago. For instance, some rice fields located in Pampanga now have commercial establishments. Should this go on and on then we will really find ourselves importing rice from abroad.
@Samanthavv (1380)
• United States
30 Mar 08
I don't really like rice, so it's not really a big deal in my household, especially considering I'm the one that makes whatever meals we have. But I'm sure it does affect a lot of people. I always thought rice was really cheap though?
@chrysz (1602)
• Philippines
30 Mar 08
I don't think there is a shortage of rice here in the Philippines because if it is so, we can no longer afford to export rice. Let's face it - we produce much better and more expensive variety of rice so we just export it and buy cheaper rice from other countries that when it is sold here, taxes are added to its original price and some are really taking advantage of it.
Whether there is crisis or not, we really need to practice austerity. Even if we have enough money or not, we must learn to prioritize and save.
I haven't eaten rice today but I am eating bread so I guess that's one way of saving.:-)
@bluecrystal1982 (235)
• Philippines
30 Mar 08
Personally, I believe there is a problem but it should not be to the point that we should import rice from another country. I think that the government is just putting temporary solution instead of solving the actual problem. Philipines is an agricultural country. There a vast lands for agricultural use. Though parts of it are damaged by natural disasters there are still lands that can be developed. Importing rice from other country will not solve the problem with rice shortage. As long as we import rice from other country we are weakening the opportunity for our local farmers to succeed. Also by developing agricultural lands to commercial and industrial use would lessen farm lands that we can get rice from. I believe that the government should have a stronger land reform law and support the rice farmers. Many farmers are still using carabao to plow rice fields whereas there are advanced farming equipments that can be used to multiply the harvest.
@2btrueinu (700)
• Philippines
30 Mar 08
I really felt sad about it. We eat rice and they say it going to be 40 kilo in the next few month. But now they begin to make it high last week it's only 1350 per sack sinandomeng buy now I went to the market and it's already 1550. Too high many of our fellow Filipino's are affected by this. They hard to buy 25 per kilo how much more if it's 40/kilo. Many will do bad things again just to survive. We have fault also why government official do this thing because we tolerate them in doing red tape. Life now became harder and harder. Every one of us should know how to minimize the consumption of rice. We cannot blame all to government we should be wise in spending and using everything we have for our hard earned income.
