Rice crisis in the Philippines and agricultural education.
It's official, the Philippines cannot feed itself. We have been aware that there is a rice shortage in the Philippines and that we were importing from countries like the United States, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, our government officials always have one reason or another to skirt the issue.
We just had it over the news, President Macapagal-Arroyo met Vietnam Premier Nguyen Tan Dun in the U.S. and thanked him for selling rice to the Philippines until our farmers will bring in their harvest this August. Between the lines, it means there will be certain times each year that the Philippines needs to import this basic staple of the Filipino diet.
The situation will not improve next year or 10 years from the present. In fact, it won't remain a chronic shortage, it will become a full-blown crisis. Why? Let's enumerate the causes of the impending rice crisis in the Philippines for a look on the current situation:
- Agriculture has taken a back seat in the Philippines. Vietnam sent its scientists to our country to study modern rice-related technologies and bring home new varieties. Two decades later, we are importing rice from them.
- Prime agricultural land is shrinking due to urbanization and industrialization. Rice fields are being invaded by industrial companies and subdivisions. The Philippines is a chain of islands mostly composed of rugged mountain ranges. Land area suitable for rice production is limited.
- The Philipines has one of the fastest growing population in Asia, if not the world. To call it exploding is an understatement. It doesn't take rocket science to put shrinking riceland and a run-away population together and conclude that our country cannot produce enough food for its people.
- Philippine agriculture is highly dependent on foreign technology that are not appropriate for local conditions. Instead of planting the rice varities we gave to Vietnam, we embraced chemical-hungry varieties multi-national corporations designed for us. Not only our farmers cannot produce enough rice for Filipinos, they can barely break-even with the high cost of imported pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers.
- Agricultural education is in a dismal state and Agriculturists are a dying breed. Nobody wants to study agriculture and experts are predicting a shortage of people who will study food production and guide the nation. Without them how can we hope to achieve sufficient rice production with our continously declining resources?
Agriculture has always been the key to a nation's survival and sovereingty. Once a nation can no longer feed itself, it will either crumble from the inside or surrender its rights to a foreign power. In order to forestall the rice crisis or food crisis (since it is not only rice that is in shortage), the government should put more emphasis on Agricultural education and Agricultural institutes such as Central Mindanao University. Who knows from our beloved Musuan will come the heroes that will save us from the rice crisis.
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Musuan, our home.
Musuan is a place of hope and gateway to unlimited opportunities nestled amidst the rugged and beautiful mountains of Bukidnon in the Island of Mindanao, Philippines. Its name came from Mount Musuan, a lava dome and tuff cone that is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and symbol of an educational institution that thrives in its shadows.
The area around which the peak presides is home to the Central Mindanao University and mother to hundreds of students and thousands of graduates who have passed beneath its storied portal and marched off to make their respective marks in the world.
Musuan, as the university is simply known to those who keep its memories in their hearts, began life as an agricultural settlement school organized by the Americans in 1910 to train teachers for the province of Bukidnon. It went through a lot of phases before finally emerging as the premier agricultural university in Mindanao and second among state colleges and universities in the Philippines.
Musuan currently houses two (2) national Centers of Excellence—Agriculture and Forestry—and a Center of Development in Biology Education. The university has earned the distinction as a top performing school in the fields of veterinary medicine, engineering, forestry, agriculture, nutrition and dietetics, and education.
The 3,080 hectares the university covers is one of the most peaceful, beautiful, and refreshing campus in the Philippines. For hundreds of visitors and weary travelers, it is a popular resting spot. For us Musuanons, it is where our hearts are.
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