Philippines Caught in Rice Squeeze

The dry-season harvest is underway at a rice farm in Laguna province in the Philippines. A spike in world prices this spring has increased the price of rice sold from this farm by about 50 percent over last year. (By Blaine Harden -- The Washington Post)
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"We are making a jackpot on this," said Sesinando Masajo, 74, who recently sold most of his crop at a price 55 percent higher than what he was paid in October.

He said he has begun buying fertilizer for the rainy-season crop in the fall. He is also considering planting a third rice crop this year.

"I would describe rice farmers as being very happy," he said.

Economists and rice researchers expect that higher farm prices should by autumn result in a sharp increase in rice production across Asia.

For the Philippine government to take maximum advantage of the market incentives, it should invest in irrigation maintenance, provide more farmers with hybrid seeds and repair potholes in farm-to-market roads, according to several experts at local universities and at the International Rice Research Institute. Whether the government, which has neglected these issues for years, will now invest in them is not yet clear.

Masajo, for one, applauds all these ideas. He would also like the government to get out of the price-regulation business.

"I don't like government control," he said. "It is like martial law. You can be pushed around."