RP rice program faces severe challenge – Yap

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said yesterday  that the government faces a “severe challenge” in meeting its rice self-sufficiency goal.

During a media forum sponsored by UNESCO and held at the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana, Yap said one big challenge is the soaring cost of inputs.

He said the government  faces a delicate balancing act in maintaining what has been an improving rice production while the hectarage planted to rice has remained the same.

One major constraint is the skyrocketing cost of inputs, particularly fertilizer which Yap said now costs around P2,000 per bag.

The higher cost of inputs and production, in turn, affects rice prices.

Meanwhile, Yap said the National Food Authority (NFA) needs to adopt a more “focused”  distribution approach, saying that some of the subsidized rice may not be going to the right beneficiaries.

Yap  is pushing for the issuance of family access cards. 

So far this year, Yap said local rice production is on target as of the first half of this year, with around 7.1 million metric tons of palay harvested in the dry cropping season.

The production for the second half or for the main wet cropping season, he said, is still being worked out since the wet cropping season is from July to September.