MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte said the country may not achieve its rice self-sufficiency target before his term ends in 2020.
“I do not believe that we can be rice [self-]sufficient,” Duterte said in a speech in Malacañang during the signing of the deal for the implementation of the free college tuition law.
Earlier Agriculture secretary Manny Piñol projected that the Philippines will achieve rice self-sufficiency in 2020.
“That was only a story,” Duterte said in jest. “If you’d ask me, in the next how many years, we will just have to import rice.”
Mindanao used to be the country’s “breadbasket” but the advent of cash crop reduced farmlands and affected food crop production, he said. “In Mindanao, the choice lands there were eaten up by the cash crop guys.”
Moreover the decades-long conflict in Mindanao has been affecting food production, said the President.
“Mindanao could really (be) properly cultivated” without war, he claimed. “Mindanao could supply the food that we are going to eat. If we cannot solve the problem in time, we will have [a] problem.”
Duterte hopes Congress approves the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law to “open the door for lasting peace” in Mindanao.
“I hope the BBL, however fractured it may be to others, will see the light of day,” he said, adding that the contending provisions may be reserved for discussion during the constitutional convention.” (PNA)
