The Philippine Agriculture: Weaknesses and Controversies

The sugarcane plantations of Negros Island epitomize the huge inequalities in the Philippine countryside. Landlords have controlled vast estates, the haciendas, since the Spanish colonial period. Despite the pressure of peasant associations, revolutionary agrarian movements (Huks, then the communist NPA) and the church support for poor farmers, most efforts to implement a substantial agrarian reform, including in the Marcos period and the CARP of Corazon Aquino, have failed in reducing inequities and improving the life of poor peasants in the country. Hacienda Luisita, a property of the Aquino family, illustrates the difficulties to implement a true agrarian reform. The Philippines hence appear similar to many Latin American countries. The country also suffers from insufficient rice production. The paradox is that it is one of the top rice importers in the world despite the presence of the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos. This chapter examines the controversies surrounding the rice import policy and the development of transgenic rice.