ADB blamed for rice crisis in Philippines
2 April 2008
Loan conditions imposed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are blamed for lifting measures that protect the farm sector.
Advocates of food sovereignty have blamed the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a looming rice shortage. The Asia Pacific Network on Food Sovereignty (APNFS) told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the ADB's loan conditions have pressured the government to "deregulate and privatize" agriculture. Furthermore, APNFS argued that the ADB continues to insist that the government "give up its quantitative restrictions on rice imports", a measure that protects the farm sector.
In the Grain Sector Development Program loan issued in 2000, the ADB pushed for the privatization of the National Food Authority and insisted on unrestricted rice importation to be replaced with tariffs on imported rice. The loan was then canceled after the government of the Philippines failed to meet these conditions. Representatives from APNFS argue that while the Philippines was among the world's top rice producers it was also a net importer. The rice shortage has led to allegations of rice hoarding and price increases in a country that was once rice-sufficient. Organizations like APNFS are calling on the ADB to "reform its conditions according to the needs of the country it would like to help."
Sources
Additional Resources
Trading-off Philippine Rice: Implications of the proposed removal of QR by Jerome Ignacio, Integrated Rural Development Foundation of the Philippines (Acrobat pdf, 85 KB)
The Struggle for Food Sovereignty in the Philippines by Alice Raymundo, Asia Pacific Network on Food Sovereignty (Acrobat pdf, 37 KB)