He will also have to address demands to speed up the implementation of a land redistribution programme started during the time of former president Corazon Aquino, whose administration ended six years ago.

The presidential election was held on Monday and results are not expected for one or two weeks. But exit polls suggest vice president Joseph Estrada may win by a landslide.

Estrada, popular among the masses, has said the development of agriculture is a priority.

"The next president, who comes in on the first of July, must make a decision quickly on the rice supply issue, which is the most politically critical," University of the Philippines political science professor Alex Magno told Reuters Television.

Rice is the staple of the 71 million Filipinos and the government has had to import because of shortfall in the domesticharvest.

Estrada, with his pro-poor election campaign, has promised to make farmers the country's "new rich" if he wins. "He (Estrada) has committed to the rice farmers subsidies, basically no importation, and continued support for rice production, which is...rather inefficient since we do not have great rivers to irrigate our paddies," Magno said.

"If Estrada is elected president, that is the first Gordian knot he must cut and he must cut (it) with enough political will." The new president will take over as the Philippines grapples with one of its worst droughts on record, the result of El Nino.

Most parts of the country have had below normal rainfall since April 1997 and meteorologists say this could last until June.

At least 21 people have died from eating poisonous yams and of cholera from drinking contaminated water after drought ravaged crops and water sources dried up in southern Mindanao island. One economist said he expected the farm sector to register negative growth this year from lastyear's 3.03 percent because of the drought and prospects of a La Nina weather pattern, which is forecast to bring torrential rains.

The government expects zero growth in agriculture this year.

Farmers said Ramos' successor could either be their saviour or traitor. "The greatest challenge is to really institute a total agrarian reform programme...it is up to an executive to see this into eventuality," one farm group leader said.

"Unless the millions of landless farmers are emancipated from the bondage of the soil they till, there will be no modernisation in agriculture," said Rafael Mariano, National chairman of the Peasants Movement of the Philippines.

Farmers said the slow pace of redistributing land was due to lack of political will and strong opposition by landlords.

The Department of Agrarian Reform said in a report published in a Saturday newspaper that as of last December, it had distributed 4.6 million hectares of land to small farmers.

In 1987, the government said it expected some 3.9million small farmers to benefit from the programme covering 10.3 million hectares. The Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper reported none of the 10 presidential candidates consider agriculture the foundation of the country's economy, and none recognised land security among farmers "is at the heart of the nation's food security."

The Inquirer said a study by Friends of Agrarian Reform Media Services, a non-government organisation, showed the candidates recognised the plight of farmers and workers but had no formula to make agriculture a crucial factor in the country's economy in the next millennium.