Palace releases P5 billion for rice farmers amid imports

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has released P5 billion to help millions of rice farmers affected by the law allowing unrestricted importation of rice.

Agriculture officials told the House of Representatives committee on agriculture that of the P5 billion, P2 billion has been released to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and P2 billion to the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (Philmec).

During the hearing yesterday, leaders of farmers’ organizations and the agriculture sector complained that palay prices have been falling and are now at the P8 to P10 per kilo level, or P2 to P4 less than their production cost of P12 per kilo.

Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan said PhilRice would be in charge of developing and procuring certified seeds while Philmec would produce or buy machineries and equipment.

The seeds and machineries would be distributed to farmers and their cooperatives between December and early next year, Cayanan said.

He said the remaining P1 billion of the fund would be allotted to training and extension services.

Cayanan added that P166 million has been released to Land Bank and P109 million to the Development Bank of the Philippines for lending to farmers.

The P5 billion is half of the P10-billion rice competitiveness enhancement fund (RCEF) the law mandates to be set aside to help rice farmers.

Yesterday’s hearing by the committee on agriculture chaired by Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga is its first on the implementation of the law.

Rep. Florencio Noel of party-list group An Waray, Enverga’s senior vice chairman, lamented that newly appointed Agriculture Secretary William Dar did not show up, contrary to the promise he conveyed to the committee last week.

Cayanan said Dar was attending to the launching of the lending program under RCEF that would make production loans of up to P15,000 available to farmers.

Farmers’ leaders complained that they would not immediately benefit from the P5 billion that is supposedly allocated for them.

Former congressman Rafael Mariano, who heads the leftist group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said the low prices of palay make the situation worse for them.

“We are losing money because the buying price is less than our production cost,” he said.

Other leaders of the agriculture sector confirmed that palay prices have indeed fallen.

Rosendo So of Samahang Sinag ng Magsasaka said rice importations last year and this year totaling 3.9 million metric tons (78 million bags) caused rice and palay prices to go down.

So said if rice prices are down, traders would naturally offer low prices for palay.

He said imports should have been calibrated to keep a balance in rice and palay prices.

Elias Inciong, who heads the United Broilers Association, said he attended the hearing to warn farmers and consumers that rice import liberalization would not benefit them.

“That is our experience with broilers and poultry products,” he said.

P15 billion for NFA sought

Lawmakers are pushing for an additional P15-billion budget for the National Food Authority (NFA) to procure more palay from local farmers amid the drop in farmgate prices as a result of the deluge of cheap imported rice.

During the House hearing on the effects of the rice tariffication law, Enverga heeded the calls of farmers to augment the NFA’s procurement budget.

“I support the move to increase the NFA budget. I think we do not have the capabilities yet to compete with the liberalization of rice in the country,” Enverga told reporters.

“They will have difficulty in the open market to sell their produce. At least with the NFA, they are assured that majority of their produce will be bought by the government at a high price,” he added. – With Louise Maureen Simeon