Consequence of Rice Land Conversion to Rice Security and Peace and Order Tabuk City, Kalinga, Philippines: A Root Cause Analysis.

Abstract

Tabuk City was declared the rice granary of the cordilleras after the city was covered with agricultural irrigation since it was able to produce an aggregate gross production of 1,436,520 cavans per cropping period. By then the entire cordillera regions get their rice supplies in exchange of other goods and their agricultural products.

But due to unabated illegal conversions that the local government failed to prevent attended by the CLUP that prioritized commercialization over preservation of agricultural lands that allows vast of irrigated lands for re-classification and ultimately converted into other uses the rice production of the city is now dwindling and with a conservative estimate and projection for 20 years from date the city will be needing atleast of 376,332,984 kilos of rice divide by 40 kilos per bag will translate into 9,408,324.6 bags of rice supply with and estimated population increase of 752,352 families by 2040. With this scenario, there will be too much hungry families that in the in the language of criminological science will be the primary driver of criminality.

Amidst the frustration of farmers to farm brought about by other factors like the

Rice Tarrification Law by Senator Cynthia Villar (RTL) that makes farm output in the mercy of traders where farmers income goes down to break even or loss due to very high inputs and very low price of outputs contributes to the dwindling production.

Other factors contributing to the decrease of irrigated land areas is the tongue wetting prices offered by commercial developers, land owners are tempted to sell their properties and either transfer to other nearby areas or personally convert their lands into either residential or commercial areas.

This study results (data) is intended to be presented to the local city legislators for their consideration. That if there will be no pro-active actions the projected possibilities will make the city hungry.