Head Topics (The Philippines) published an article on the laws governing rice production. The article asks if scarce government funds are being spent wisely, or if farmers could have been better off if the Department of Agriculture had simply given the support money to them as cash grants.
The total harvested area in 2020 grew by 1.7 percent from 2019 levels. But compared to 2017, it declined by 2 percent. Around 80,000 hectares were removed from rice production during the interim. This belied claims that the predicted exodus of farmers from rice production was off the mark. In fact, the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) and IFPRI had previously forecast that a significant number of farmers would not be able to compete with imported rice and would eventually be forced to leave rice farming. (Reach 165K) Republished in Rappler.