The Bayanihan sa Agrikultura coalition on Thursday said the incoming administration’s promise of P20 per kilogram of rice would only be attained through massive government subsidy and repeal of the rice trade liberalization (RTL) law.
The coalition said the government must pour in “complete” subsidies to rice farmers if the next administration under presumptive President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. wants his campaign promise to be fulfilled.
If there is no government subsidy, the group argued, private traders will just buy palay at a price way below the production cost just to achieve a retail price of rice at P20 per kilogram.
“Without the government subsidy, the buying price of palay will become P10 per kilo to be able to achieve the P20 per kilo of rice in the market,” said Trinidad Domingo, farmer sector representative in the National Anti-Poverty Commission.
“This will be a great loss to farmers… because the cost of production is so steep at P70,000 per hectare,” Domingo added.
Domingo noted that rice production cost today is at about P14 per kilogram already due to expensive planting inputs such as fertilizer.
Omi Royandoyan of the Bayanihan sa Agrikultura coalition pointed out that the government must also repeal the RTL law to protect farmers from “unbridled” rice importation.
“We are deeply concerned that the next administration will rely on imported rice, still at subsidized price, to realize the promise of P20 per kilo of rice in the market. Mr. Marcos Jr. promised to review the RTL,” Royandoyan said.
“The review should be done with the interest of local producers as major consideration. Otherwise, the massive losses that local rice farmers continue to suffer from will even turn for the worst,” Royandoyan added.
The coalition challenged proclaimed legislators and the incoming administration to prove their care for the Filipino farmers by fulfilling their promise of reviewing the RTL law.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar earlier disclosed that the P20 per kilogram to P30 per kilogram campaign promise of Marcos Jr. could be achieved if the National Food Authority (NFA) would revert to its commercial function of selling rice to the domestic market, particularly for the poor. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2022/05/11/dar-wants-nfa-to-sell-rice-again-to-the-poor/)
Dar said the NFA can sell P30 per kilogram of rice to the country’s poorest of the poor families if given a budget of P30 billion annually as it buys palay at a price of P19 per kilogram, which can be even increased to P20 per kilogram.
A higher budget would allow the NFA to beef up its buffer stock and maintain at least 30 days’ worth of daily national consumption, Dar added. At present, NFA’s annual budget is only P7 billion, enough for the procurement of about 5 to 10 days’ worth of rice buffer stock.
This inventory level, Dar said, would allow the food agency to have a substantial market share through its roll-over scheme wherein it buys palay from farmers at a “favorable price” then sells it at below the prevailing market price.
Considering the NFA’s current buying price of P19 per kilogram, the food agency can increase the price of milled rice by P3 per kg to P30 per kg from the previous P27 per kg, prior to the enactment of the RTL law.
Reinstating the commercial functions of NFA would entail the amendment of Republic Act 11203 or the RTL law, which liberalized the rice industry and deregulated the state-run food agency.