Agriculture Secretary William Dar announced Thursday a directive authorizing the National Food Authority to bring down rice prices to ₱27 per kilo by flooding the market with 3.6 million bags and raise palay support price to ₱19 from ₱17 per kilo.
The said measures were approved by the NFA Council during an emergency meeting on Tuesday.
Dar, who chairs the NFA Council, has given NFA Administrator Judy Carol Dansal to dispose of the stocks on or before Oct. 10.
When sold at retail price of ₱27 per kilo, the 3.6 million 50-kilogram bags would amount to ₱4.86 billion, which the NFA can readily use to procure palay or paddy rice from farmers.
During the meeting, the Council agreed to flood Metro Manila and other markets nationwide with ₱27 per kilo rice using its current stocks stored in NFA warehouses across the country.
The ₱2 increase in palay price support could translate to ₱8,000 additional income per farmer, based on current national average yield of 4 tons per hectare.
Earlier, Dar secured the commitment of 30 provincial governments to buy palay from their farmers directly.
Dar directed Dansol to flood Metro Manila and other markets nationwide with P27-per-kilo rice using its current stocks stored at the NFA warehouses across the country.
The NFA shall also undertake a comparative palay production cost study per region to come up with basis for a more responsive and precise rice and palay pricing policies to be set by its council.
The P2 increase in palay price support could translate to an P8,000 additional income per farmer based on current national average yield of four tons per hectare.
The Agriculture department is set to forge an agreement with the Department of Social Welfare and Development for a grant of P600 cash to the beneficiaries of its Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the conditional cash transfer.
Dar said DWSD has the option to buy either from the provincial governments and the NFA, giving farmers an assured market for their produce.
During the Council meeting, NFA was also directed to undertake a comparative palay production cost study per region to come up with basis for a more responsive and precise rice and palay pricing policies to be set by the NFA Council.
Meanwhile, millions of rice farmers on Thursday blamed the Rice Tariffication Law or Republic Act No. 11203 for the drop in the prices of palay or unhusked rice to their disadvantage.
In an interview, Danilo Ramos, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chairperson, called for the repeal of the law that caused the influx of cheaper imported rice.
The rice trade liberalization is slowly killing the lowly farmers and the rice industry itself, he said, adding farmers are getting poorer and poorer.
“We went around to see if there was still NFA rice being sold in many markets. We saw none since over a week ago,” he told the Manila Standard.
Rice farmers are suffering and are losing a lot of income because of the law, he lamented.
Even rice millers are hurting, he said.
According to Ramos, while President Rodrigo Duterte “has told the NFA to [directly] buy palay from the farmers,” the law “has removed NFA’s role of palay procurement.”
“I have just come from Central Luzon and found out that a kilo of palay is being bought at P6 to P7 compared against the price of ‘darak’ [rice husk] at P12,” he said.
“The Rice Tariffication Law must be repealed. On the other hand, Gabriela Party-list Arlene Brosas has filed House Bill No. 477 or the Rice Industry Development Act of 2019 to protect the both the welfare of the farmers and consumers,” he said.
KMP is composed of 65 organizations of local farmers in 15 regions in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, according to Ramos.
Silvestre Bonto, National Confederation of Irrigators Association Inc. with over 1.2 million rice farmers, said despite the influx of imported rice, the prices of commercial rice in the market still remain high.
“The NCIA is the most affected group since 67 percent to 70 percent of the rice supply come from us,” he told the Manila Standard.
He complained that prices of palay would range from P8 per kilo to P12 per kilo.
“What is too disappointing is, retailers in the markets or stores sell rice at a high cost,” he said.
He partly blamed the retailers for the price increase of commercial rice, saying they sometimes dictate the prices of rice.
“Why is this so? A rice retailer sometimes could only sell two sacks of rice a day or at a maximum of five to 10 sacks a day. How do you expect them to earn for day if they do not raise their prices?” he asked.