PHILIPPINES : Rice Crisis (2008)

With the culmination of the Imbayah Rice festival in Banaue, Ifugao province, the country is facing unprecedented inflation of the price of rice. The celebration that occurs once in three years heralds the end of the harvest period and hopes for another fruitful planting season to bring food to some of the 75 million in the country.

The high price of rice would lead to several more increase of costs of basic commodities and put more load to the heavy burden of the Filipino.

The yoke on Juan de la Cruz’s back nears the point beyond the bearable credence, and day by day the gap of the have’s and the have not’s widens. Rice, being the country’s staple, is now a premiere commodity in a country where 12 million people could not meet the 27.8 pesos a day threshold for food.