The State of Rice Production in the Philippines
Rice is to the Philippines as corn is to the Mexicans. It is our most important food source, and ironically the most imported commodity in the Philippines. Acres of rice fields lay waste and idle. Some completely abandoned, waiting for the next suburban development. And we wonder why we have to constantly import metric tons of rice. The rice farming situation in the Philippines is getting closer to dire and almost non-existent. We used to be the largest rice producer in southeast Asia but has now become one of the largest importers in the region. More and more farmers are forgoing the fields in search of better alternatives or selling their lands to land developers converting the much needed planting fields into housing developments. Farmers who quit the lands are usually those with little to gain and much to loose. Farming in the Philippines is still pretty much dependent on manual labor and other outdated means that seemed to have survived us since the times of the Spanish ...