BAYOG, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR – There is no rice shortage in the Zamboanga Peninsula, but officials disclosed that the region was running short of agriculturists and rice farmers.
Mayor Mary Ann Cartalla revealed to the Inquirer that her town, known as one of the major rice granaries in Western Mindanao, had not been experiencing rice shortage, “but we are losing more young people to courses like nursing and computer science.”
Cartalla said the population of rice planters had drastically fallen as more and more youths were lured to work abroad as nurses, or as call center agents. “Our rice planters and farmers are getting old without fresh replacements,” she said.
Of the 400 graduates at the Saint Joseph College and Mindanao State University Annex this year, only nine took up BS Agriculture, she said. “If this situation goes on for five to 10 years, we will definitely experience rice shortage because most of the aging farmers, and with their children working abroad, will ultimately abandon their rice farm or sell it.”
Bayog has two irrigation systems – the Sibugay River Irrigation Dam System and the Dipili Irrigation Dam, servicing six lowland villages with about 30,000 hectares of rice farms. It has 28 villages, all engaged in rice planting and production. Seven of the villages are in the lowlands.
In Zamboanga City, National Economic Development and Authority regional director Rafael Evangelista confirmed to the Inquirer Cartalla’s fear.
The city produced a conservative figure of 3,000 graduates from Western Mindanao State University this year, although it has four big universities and some 8,000 new graduates competing for limited local job offers.
Universities and colleges are offering better options for students taking agricultural courses, “but we have so few interested applicants, more are into white-collar jobs and we should be concerned [about] this,” Evangelista said.
Rice and corn production went up by 31.5 percent and 32.4 percent in the last quarter.
Palay production in the Zamboanga Peninsula in the fourth quarter of 2007 increased by around 31.2 percent or 43,689 metric tons.
In Tagum City in Davao del Norte, agriculture officials said the province was not experiencing a rice shortage, but they warned that if the low production due to conversion of rice lands into banana plantations continued, its supply of the staple would suffer and a food crisis would be imminent.
