Press Release
October 10, 2009

ANGARA: BOOST POST-HARVEST TO STOP RICE WASTE

With P6.5 billion worth of agricultural produce damaged from the recent typhoons and a reported P30 billion worth of losses in rice, Sen. Edgardo J. Angara is calling on the Department of Agriculture (DA) to allocate funds for post-harvest facilities.

"Although our supplies and current imports may be enough to last us for the rest of the year, the shortage will be most felt in the first half of the year. With the typhoons killing this season's harvest and threatening our food supply for next year, it is crucial that we prevent further losses by improving our post-harvest network." said Angara, former agriculture secretary.

The Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension (BPRE), an attached agency of the DA, reported that the lack of post-harvest facilities such as dryers and rice mills are the primary cause of rice wastage. A reported 4.5% of rice harvest is lost due to inadequate or inefficient drying facilities. This fraction represents 408,764 metric tons of milled rice.

"We cannot rely on massive and costly rice importation. Developing post-harvest facilities is a wise investment to secure future food supply. It will maximize our farmers' productivity and save us billions of pesos in savings in the long run," he said.

The country has so far imported 1.775 million tons of the rice this year. In 2008 the government procured an all-time high of 2.3 million tons from Vietnam. There is already a scarcity of rice and vegetable supply in the country, with food security threatened by typhoons.

Angara said, "Ondoy and Pepeng emphasize the need to aggressively undertake reforms in the agriculture sector and improve our post-harvest facilities to spare our crops from waste so that we have enough supply even during calamities like typhoons, floods, pest epidemic and drought."

Drying is one of the most delicate phases of rice harvest. If not properly done over 5% goes to waste. Of the country's annual 16.2 million metric ton-harvest, a total of P10 B worth of rice is lost due to the lack of an efficient post-harvest network.

So far, the BPRE has reported to have distributed 688 units of flat bed dryers to irrigators and rice farmers in the country. But Angara insists that more facilities be funded and distributed, and research and development of post-harvest technologies be beefed up.

Agriculture is the largest single industry in the country and majority of livelihood source for rural Filipinos. Especially in the countryside, Filipinos are highly dependent on agro-marine products for consumption and enterprise, the biggest sub-segment of which is rice farming.

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