President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to defer the proposed rice importation in the first quarter lifted the aggregate income of Filipino rice farmers by P24 billion, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Wednesday.
Piñol said the aggregate income of rice farmers hit P73.08 billion in the first quarter, as the buying price of paddy rice reached P21 per kilogram, an increase of P7 to P9 per kilo from the previous harvest seasons.
He said the income estimate was based on a net harvest of 3,480,086 metric tons in January to March.
Piñol said DA’S Philippine Rice Research Institute’s Philippine Rice Information System actually monitored a total harvest of 4,142,960 metric tons of rice in the first quarter of 2017, but the DA factored in a post-harvest loss estimate of 16 percent.
“Now, that is a P24.38-billion increase in the income of the rice farmers for the first quarter alone because of President Duterte’s directive to defer rice importation until after the harvest season,” Piñol said.
The directive raised rice prices at the retail level. The National Economic and Development Authority said that in March, rice prices went up by 2.3 percent from a year ago, mainly due to import constraints imposed by the government.
Neda director-general Ernesto Pernia was pushing for the lifting of rice import restriction to allow cheaper imported rice into the country.
“Inflationary pressure may ease following the removal of quantitative restrictions [QR] on rice importation, and the timely augmentation of supplies,” Pernia said in a previous statement.
Piñol said the rise in income of farmers in the first quarter would eventually result in a positive impact on the gross domestic product.
“With an increased buying power because of greater income, the farmers now will be able to buy new clothes, perhaps a new TV set, a new refrigerator, a new motorcycle, a new pick-up, serve his family with beef, pork and even expensive canned goods, drink cold beer or Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola after a sumptuous meal and perhaps go to the mall to do some shopping,” Piñol said.
“All the goods that the financially empowered rice farmers buy are produced by other Filipinos or even imported thus creating a ripple effect on these sectors as well. At the end of it all, a better income for the agriculture and fisheries sector means lower poverty in the countryside which in the long run will lessen the migration of people to the big cities, which in the longer run will help decongest traffic and avoid the construction of more skyways and other infrastructure to address the over-population,” Piñol said.
