Traders force farmers to plant other crops

Ka Ben used to plant rice in his three-hectare farm in Tarlac. He gave up rice farming three years ago.

"It's back-breaking work, and the earnings are not good because the rice traders are predatory," Ka Ben said.

He shifted to corn, which gave him bigger earnings. A multinational company processing animal feeds bought his corn at a higher price.

Today, Ka Ben looks forward to a bonanza—but not from farming. "Real estate developers want to buy my land. I can earn P1 million right away. My sons and daughters need money for college," he said. Ka Ben's fields are in the vast area where urban development will take place after the Subic-Tarlac Expressway opens.

Another farmer, Ka Cesar, sees no future in rice farming. From planting rice and corn alternately in Isabela, Ka Cesar is now in Southern Luzon planting biofuel crops, because "it's more profitable."

Ka Ben and Cesar are not unique. There are many thousands of them, which is very bad news for a country seeking 100-percent rice self-sufficiency.

In an interview with The Manila Times, Muslim farmer Nasser Halipa said that because rice yields in the Philippines per hectare is low, many farmers prefer to plant other crops.

He said rice farming can earn a farmer from P10,000 to P30,000 per cropping season, which is hardly enough to sustain a decent living for a large family even in rural areas.

But vegetable farming which is less "back-breaking" can bring as much as double the earnings from rice farming. While media reports hype land conversion as a major cause of the country's insufficiency in rice production, "crop shifting" may actually be a bigger cause of the rice crisis.