Food Security and the Threat from Within: Rice Policy Reforms in the Philippines

The forces of globalization, in tandem with realities of domestic natural resources, economics and politics, and the influence of international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), are re-shaping the food security policy and strategy of nations such as the Philippines. This paper describes the forces that have come to bear on the shaping of food security policy in the Philippines in recent years, and the Philippine Government’s responses to the challenges. This paper attempts two approaches to the problem:1. a political economy and public administration insight into the effectiveness and efficiency of the Philippine Government’s efforts to boost rice production. Public goods and policies have greater significance in rice productivity and growth than in most other commodities and services. Research and analysis that intensifies attention to public sector governance as a crucial factor in the attainment of sustainable food security is thus appropriate; and 2. use of the concept of the “securitization” of food, and the implications of such securitization. Food security has increasingly become a matter not only of national economics, but of politics as well. Some elements related to such securitization are discussed.