Unavoidable

President Marcos issued Executive Order 50 maintaining lowered tariff rates for rice, pork and corn until the end of 2024. It was an unavoidable decision.

The usual suspects raised the usual howl over the continued lowering of tariff rates. The lower tariff rates will be hard on our farmers, they argue. That is true. They will be forced to compete against cheaper food imports.

But what other option do we have?

If we keep tariff rates high, food will be more expensive. That will fuel our poverty rates and raise inflation. High inflation will harm everyone without exception. A high food price regime coupled with a high inflation regime will harm our economic development.

Already the high food price regime is causing widespread malnutrition and stunting among our children. The damage wrought on our human capital is immense.

There is no way we can solve our agricultural crisis in the foreseeable future – not until we radically reconfigure our farm systems. Domestic production of key commodities will be lower than domestic demand for them. Importation helps us avert shortages resulting from this.

If we do not import what our agriculture cannot produce, we will face even more serious problems.There could be food riots. There could be starvation in some areas. All these will convert into instability in the political sphere. The damage to our community will simply spiral.

As things stand, the “lower” tariff rates are still too high. We will still be imposing 35 percent tariff rates for rice. Tariffs for pork will range from 15 to 25 percent. Corn, which is principally used for animal feed, will still pay 5 to 15 percent.

Those who oppose these lowered tariff rates are operating on the assumption that there should be no imports at all. That is an unrealistic assumption.

Let’s face it: our agriculture has failed us. All of us are at fault for this.

Our farm systems are inefficient. They are kept so by the uneconomical subdivision of farmland. Our agriculture is trapped in subsistence mode. That will not do to get our people properly fed.

For decades, because we are trapped in subsistence mode, there has been only negligible investment in food processing, in logistics