Securing Rice, Reducing Poverty: Challenges and Policy Directions Overview

The rice sector in the Philippines is a conundrum. Its performance in the past twenty-five years has been poorer than that of most developing countries in Asia. Not only is absolute poverty and malnutrition high, their reduction has been also far slower than its neighbors'. Yet, the country's human capital is considerably stronger than—or at least at par with—that of most of these countries. The country also hosts the International Rice Research Institute; it also has an arguably world-class homegrown rice research arm, the Philippine Rice Research Institute. What has gone wrong?