Southeast Asian countries have agreed to broadly increase the region's strategic stockpile starting next year.

Philippine Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor said the agreement was reached by all the agriculture ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), plus China, Japan and South Korea who met for the annual agriculture and forestry ministers' meeting last week in Vientiane, Laos.

"By 2003, the rice reserves stockpiling scheme will be piloted.  This will determine which countries will provide the commodity and which countries will avail of the reserves.  The pilot project will also determine how much fees will be paid by members to keep the system going," said Montemayor.

Agriculture ministers from ASEAN are still trying to work out proposals to raise the rice reserves from the current 87,000 metric tons (MT) to as much as 1.7 million MT.

The scheme called ASEAN Emergency Rice Reserve (AERR) aims to increase food security in the region as well as stabilize the price of the commodity. ASEAN members can draw from the rice reserve in times of disaster or crises.

Earlier, National Food Authority Deputy Administrator Gregorio Tan Jr. said some members  of the ASEAN felt that a bigger volume is needed at this time because of rising populations while the recurrence of El Niņo should further tighten supply of rice, a staple in the region.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Thailand is the world's top rice exporter, while Indonesia and the Philippines are major rice importers.