The Department of Agriculture (DA) will deploy mobile stores that will sell commercial rice at P38 per kilogram (kg) in Manila and Quezon City as part of government efforts to stabilize the price of the staple.
“Starting Monday, two trucks of the DA loaded with at least 1,000 bags of rice in 5 and 10 kilo packs will be deployed to poor neighborhoods in Metro Manila to sell rice at P38 per kg,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in his Facebook page on February 21.
Piñol said this is an expansion of the DA’s Bigas ng Masa TienDA program, which was launched last week.
“Agriculture Undersecretary for Agribusiness and Marketing Bernadette Romulo-Puyat will oversee the expanded operations of the Bigas ng Masa TienDA, which aims to directly link farmers to the consumers and bring down the prices of basic food commodities like rice,” he added.
Piñol said two trucks would be deployed in Tondo in Manila and Payatas in Quezon City.
“The Bigas ng Masa TienDA is an advocacy program of the agriculture department, which aims to connect farmers directly with the consumers to bring down the prices of food commodities,” he said.
“While freshly harvested commercial rice is being sold in the market for as high as P50 per kg to P60 per kg, the Bigas ng Masa TienDA will maintain a selling price of P38 per kg,” he added.
Citing a study conducted by DA, Piñol said the retail price of rice should only be double the farm-gate price of paddy. “If farmers’ palay is bought at P20 kg, the selling price of rice should not be more than P40 per kg.”
“The layers and tiers of middlemen and traders who make profits as the supply moves from the farms to the markets, however, have resulted in very high prices of basic food commodities,” Piñol added.
The agriculture chief also said the DA would expand its Bigas ng Masa program in the provinces to give poor families an access to “fairly priced” rice and farm products.
“The Bigas ng Masa TienDA will soon be offered in the regional offices of the DA in outlets to be operated by farmers themselves with the help of agriculture workers,” he said.
“From the regions, the Bigas ng Masa TienDA outlets will also be opened in the different municipalities to provide the poor access to fairly priced farm products,” Piñol added.
The DA chief said rice farmers belonging to the Star Capalay Association of Nueva Ecija committed to support the department’s Bigas ng Masa program by supplying it with 500 25-kilogram bags of rice weekly.