AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE SITUATION OF

AGRICULTURE SECTOR: RICE PRODUCTION

IN TIME OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Introduction

The cause of a year's lockdown, caused every establishment to close down, put

everyone's lives in danger and at risk especially the front liners, is the Covid-19 disease, shortcut

for Coronavirus Disease 2019, which first occurred in Wuhan China, in December 2019.

Investigations and studies were performed by Chinese authorities in early December 2019 and

had identified onset symptoms in human cases. Cases were said to be link to wholesale food

markets in Wuhan, while some cases are not (Esiobu, N.S., Sept. 2020). Various signs like fever,

cough, shortness of breath, fatigue or body aches, headaches, may appear 2-14 days after

exposure to the virus (CDC, December 2020). Covid- 19's affects and targets mostly people with

age range to 60 years old and above according to World Health Organization (2020), and the

virus will mostly be attracted to those who have health conditions such as heart and lung disease,

diabetes and other disease conditions that covers the immune system. Although all ages are at

risk for this disease, those who are with age range of 60 and above are at most risk and advised to

stay at home.
 At present, cases of Covid-19 keeps on increasing nationwide or worldwide, since many

are not afraid to go outside anymore, not thinking of getting the virus themselves. Mostly teens

are spotted loitering at public places at our present time, which it is very alarming. Since Covid-

19 is still contagious and present, Red cross advices everyone to wash hands often with soap or

sanitizer before making physical contact with others, avoid close contact is also advised therefore

one should stay 6 feet away from each other, observe proper hygiene at all times and just stay at

home to avoid catching this disease.

A year of quarantine had made changes in our daily lives, many are affected, many

suffered and are still suffering. Due to Covid-19 many establishments had closed down like

schools (UNESCO 2020), businesses (Tourish, 2020), stores, malls, made workers jobless

(Hopkins, 2020) made students and teachers adjust to the new type of learning (Dhawan, 2020),

travelling has been banned (Chinazzi, et al., 2020) made officials greedy for money and stole

money from the people (Transparency Int. 2020), the latest news about PhilHealth’s 15 billion

scandal (Jalea & Peralta, 2020) and affected rice productions in different parts of the world (Fox,

et al., 2020). In which the production of rise is what should’ve given a lot of attention.

For almost a year of undergoing lockdown and this pandemic, rice production and the

farmers all over the world are affected by this disease including us, as consumers. With this

situation, the countries that mostly supplies large amounts of rice worldwide can only give 3
quarters of their harvest, some even exports rice for three weeks late or the delivery had been

hampered by rice contracts. The said countries who had performed these are countries from Asia

who exports rice mostly like India, Myanmar, Vietnam etc. (Fox, et al., 2020). Therefor

governments should do immediate action towards this problem, like for example is to manage

multiple demands from the people, responding to health crisis, managing the shock it will cause

and making sure to the smooth functioning of the food system (OECD, 2020). Aside from the

given solutions, each department in the agriculture sector should do their job and think of other

possible ways to help those who are affected by the sudden change of rice production.

Methodology

An empirical design was used in this study to not only gather the data that are credible

and accurate to the topic but also to be compiled and analyzed. The first step to be performed is

to gather data based on credible articles and sites such as World Health Organization (WHO),

UNESCO, CNN Philippines and more. The data to be gathered should be connected to rice

production issues and agriculture sectors. And the information gathered are all used to create

conclusions based only on truths, experience and real happenings, most especially without being

biased.

Results and Discussion

As stated by Secretary William Dar, (2021) of the Department of Agriculture or DA, they
are trying to manufacture metrics of rice that will surpass last year’s record of harvest (DA

Communication Group, 2021). And securing the global food supply due to Covid-19 with the

aim of maintaining the farmgate prices of palay and giving advantages to the farmers and

consumers. They are trying to raise the rate of the local rice production with additional 7% which

was at 86 percent of the required 20 million metric tons according to Dar, Secretary of The

Department of Agriculture. (CNN Philippines Staff, 2020).

The Duterte administration targets to produce rice harvest larger than the amount

recorded last year, where farmers are provided with seeds that are inbred and hybrid varieties of

rice. Expansion of planting areas are one of the solutions stated to help in rice production. Apart

from these, there is also a ‘Plant, Plant, Plant Program’ which is implemented not only in Luzon

areas but also in Visayas and Mindanao that aims to give benefits to not only the farmers but also

the customers and fishermen (DA-AFID, 2020).

According to Secretary Dar, this is advocated by the President Rodrigo Roa Duterte that

is guided by the ‘Whole of Nation’ approach to increase the nation’s food sufficiency during the

emergency situation that is resulted by Covid-10 pandemic. And after the current dry season,

farmers will be urge to plant more areas with the seeds they are provided along with the

fertilizers and appropriate technical assistance, he added. (Reyes, 2020).

With the following solutions and advocate that has been mentioned and stated by the
presidents himself and the secretary of Agriculture Department has resulted to good news and

effectiveness in rice production and it has been recorded that they surpassed the recorded total of

harvest from last year. Although the goal is achieved it may not always guarantee the farmers

and consumers that there will be no droppings of their harvest therefor it is recommended that

the government should always be prepared with their plans in case that this plan/ advocate of

them will fail and jeopardize the whole rice production, besides we may never know what will

happen next and it’s better to be prepared.

To sum it up, the government itself should create a clearer plan aside from saying that

their goal is to surpass the past years record of rice production. Seed crops, land and fertilizers

should be given to the farmers without planning on stealing any amount from the budget given.

As much as possible make it a priority to not only help the farmers with the rice production but

also help these farmers with their lives, give them the rights to increase the cost of rice since

they’ll be receiving a portion from their sales, but unless it is not justifiable then they shouldn’t

approve it.

References:

CDC. (2020). Symptoms of Coronavirus. Retreived from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-

ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html

CNN Philippines Staff. (2020). Agri Dept. intends to raise local rice sufficiency to 93%. Retrieved
from https://www.cnn.ph/news/2020/9/10/Agri-Dept.-intends-to-raise-local-rice-sufficiency-to-

93-.html

Dar, W. (2021). DA eyes bigger rice production in 2021. Retrieved from

https://www.da.gov.ph/da-eyes-bigger-rice-production-in-2021/

DA-AFID. (2020). DA’s “Plant, Plant, Plant Program” to benefit all farmers, fishers, consumers

nationwide. Retrieved from da.gov.ph

DA Communications Group. (2021). DA eyes bigger rice production in 2021. Retrieved from

da.gov.ph

Esiobu, N.S. (2020). Does the Incidence of COVID-19 Pandemic Affect Rice Yield? Lessons

from Southeast Nigeria. https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/does-the-incidence-

of-covid-19-

pandemic-affect-rice-yield-lessons-from-southeast-nigeria

Fox, J. (2020). Impact of Covid-19 on Rice Farmers in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from

https://www.eastwestcenter.org/news-center/east-west-wire/impact-covid-19-rice-farmers-in-

southeast-asia

WHO. (2020). COVID-19: vulnerable and high risk groups. Retrieved from

https://www.who.int/westernpacific/emergencies/covid-19/information/high-risk-

groups#:~:text=COVID%2D19%20is%20often,their%20immune%20system.%E2%80%8B