Why Does A Country Tha Grow Rice Have To Import Rice?

[Guardian]

Don't take my wordforit, read it for yourself. Why does the Philippines Import Rice?http://books.google.com/books/irri?id=stemcfAZ8UwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=&sig=ecPVDrqcBXDMFeFz79tSoCCtkiM#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Wow that is a long read yet an item on page 6 seems to confirm what I thought, they were self sufficient in the early 80's and even exported some rice back then which tells me that there is no reason that they could not have continued until the present with some help from the government. My thoughts are that since the rice imports are run solely by the government, someone is making way too much money to allow them to be self sufficient again and there is little corrupt money to be made in exporting rice.

[Hoz]

You're right, it is a comprehensive read. But you are picking one fact to support your position. Just because the PH exported a little rice in the 80's doesn't mean they can grow enough for the nation today. Population 1980 51,092Population 2000 80,961estimated 2020 112,963(http://www.census.gov/ipc/prod/ppt92-11.pdf)Another (shorter) read:http://www.da.gov.ph...2/RiceMain.html" That the Philippines has remained a rice importer can be primarily attributed to the rapid increase in the country's population. Records show that the country's population has more than doubled since the first high-yielding rice varieties were released by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the mid0-1960s. The population then was 32.7 million. It soared to 48 million in 1980, and further to 60 million in 1990. As of mid-2000, the Philippine population had been counted at 75.3 million. Given a 2.36 percent population increase every year, three Filipinos are born every minute, 193 in an hour, 4,624 in a day, and 1.7 million in a year."and another (one page)http://www.irri.org/science/cnyinfo/philippines.asp

Edited October 28, 2009 by Hoz

[til]

They have to import rice because they can't grow enough of it to meet the demand.Just like the US imports oil because it can't produce enough to meet its demand.Happy now?

[Hoz]

Add in the current state of flooding and devastation in Luzon from the typhoons (The rice bowl of the Philippines) and I guess that's why GMA has made a deal on Thai rice.from http://www.irri.org/...philippines.asp "Production constraintsAlong with Indonesia, rice production in the Philippines is more severely affected by El Niño events than in other Asian countries, and this led to a large contraction of production in 1998. The major effect of El Niño is a reduction in area harvested, and rainfed areas are the most affected. Irrigated areas are also affected, however, when water availability in dams declines. The Philippines also bears the brunt of many damaging typhoons coming in from the Pacific Ocean. There is also concern about the deterioration of irrigation systems at least partially because of a lack of funding for maintenance. Rainfed lowland rice suffers from uncertain timing of arrival of rains, and drought and submergence-often in the same fields over the course of a single season or in different fields within a farm over the same season. Weeds, drought, diseases (blast), acidic soils, and soil erosion are major problems of upland rice in the Philippines."

Edited October 28, 2009 by Hoz

[Travis]

They have to import rice because they can't grow enough of it to meet the demand.Just like the US imports oil because it can't produce enough to meet its demand.Happy now?

yes that made me sort of happy wasn't that easy yet if you added some facts to back up your statement that would give it real effect. as for oil, the US probably has all the oil it needs & why they import is most likely because they want to use up the Arab oil before their own. I guess we will see in time if I am correct if the world is still here when the Arab nations run out. Edited October 28, 2009 by Traveler

[Guardian]

Traveler, I find it better to disregard insults and see who knows what they are talking about and who is all hot air. It is always easy to make a statement without facts and then there are people like Hoz who back up their points with facts. I may not agree with some of those facts because desert countries such as Israel have been able to produce farmland and grow their own food and become self sufficient over time yet the Philippines only seems to regress. I still think if they put in some good irrigation systems that they could grow all they would need yet those terrible floods caused by typhoons have done a lot to destroy crops so they will not be catching up any time soon. God help them.

[Hoz]

as for oil, the US probably has all the oil it needs & why they import is most likely because they want to use up the Arab oil before their own. I guess we will see in time if I am correct if the world is still here when the Arab nations run out.

Hate to burst your bubble but the whole world is running out of oil. Worldwide production has peaked and they are not discovering any more "big fields". What remainS are small and will be harder and more expensive to recover. The next 20 years will bring shortages, rising prices and more warS to try and keep what we have. Forget returning to the moon, best to spend the money on trying to find alternate sources of energy. THE FREE (AS IN CHEAP) RIDE IS OVER.

[Travis]

Hidden Oil Secrets - Old News You Might Not KnowOkey, why should you read this? Are you still paying foolishly high prices at your local gas station? If so you should read on... Background: The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April ('08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big.. It was a revised report (that hadn't been updated since '95) on how much oil was in the western 2/3 of North Dakota ; western South Dakota ; and extreme eastern Montana ..... check THIS out: The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska 's Prudhoe Bay , and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable.... at $50 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $2.5 trillion.http://www.topix.com...-might-not-knowif you do not believe that try this onehttp://www.pushhambu....com/hidden.htm or maybe they are bith lies

[Hoz]

While I won't go so far as to label those two links "lies" I will say they have the "conspiracy" smell about them . Both are overestimating the "recoverable oil" of the Bakken Formation. It's oil shale that requires horizontal drilling and fracking the rock to recover any oil. A recent (April 2008) USGS report estimates 3-4 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Bakken. The US currently uses over 20 million barrels per day or 7 billion barrels of oil per year. At best, those two links are crowing about a drop in the bucket. The latest figures from the Bakken (wikipedia) :"The greatest Bakken oil production comes from Elm Coulee Oil Field, Richland County, Montana, where production began in 2000 and is expected to ultimately total 270 million barrels. In 2007, production from Elm Coulee averaged 53,000 barrels per day (8,400 m³/d)