BIOFUEL PRODUCTION in the Philippines won’t worsen the rising price of rice in the country because rice and biofuel crops could not be planted in the same types of land areas, an agricultural expert said yesterday.

In an interview, Rolando T. Dy, dean of the University of the Asia Pacific School of Management (UA&P), said "there is no conflict...[because] they have their own territories and operate in different areas."

Mr. Dy said the reason for this is that crops used for biofuel production, such as sugarcane, jathropa and coconut, are planted in areas where rice could not be planted.

"Coconut has always been there and land areas planted with sugarcane were converted from idle or under-utilized lands," he told BusinessWorld.

He added that jathropa plantations are found in "hilly, marginal lands," which are not really suitable for rice.

"In the economics sense, suitable areas should be planted to rice," said Mr. Dy who is also the executive director of UA&P’s Center for Food and Agribusiness.

The problem, he said, lies in the "dramatic decline in global rice stocks" brought about by "export restrictions by major exporting countries."

He also cited the hike in oil and fertilizer prices.

Mr. Dy said it would be significant to push for biofuel production in the country because it would help "alleviate poverty" especially in the countryside.

In a report released yesterday, Mr. Dy said the rice crisis affecting the Philippines is not caused by a shortage of rice but due to bad policies that have hurt the agriculture sector.

"The so-called rice crisis is really an income crisis," he said.

He blamed "under-investment in agriculture and infrastructure, a poor record in eliminating poverty [and] poor infrastructure quality," for the crisis which has forced thousands of poor Filipinos to line up for hours for subsidized rice.

"We cannot reap what we did not sow. We failed in reducing rural poverty compared to other countries," like China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, he said.

The Philippines is one of the world’s biggest rice importers and does not enjoy large contiguous land areas with large river systems that allow China, India, Vietnam and Thailand to grow huge amounts of rice, Mr. Dy conceded.

But he said other countries which are more dependent on imported rice, like Malaysia and Singapore did not have long queues for rice and were not suffering from the crisis as badly as the Philippines.

Mr. Dy said that rice consumption in the Philippines was so high because much of its population was still poor and could afford to eat nothing else.

The Philippines could raise productivity but it had not properly invested in agriculture or its support infrastructure like irrigation and farm-to-market roads, Mr. Dy said.

He said the government was investing little in research and development, building sub-standard rural roads and not putting enough irrigation into potential growth areas like the southern region of Mindanao.

Mr. Dy also complained that an agriculture modernization law that took effect in 2000 was not getting adequate funding.

Graft and corruption also hurt the agriculture sector with rural infrastructure being built to poor standards.

The rice crisis might even be a blessing in disguise because it "will spur production and even investments," in agriculture which will have a positive effect in the long run, Mr. Dy said.