The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said the government must push for the passage of bills that would help the country attain genuine rice self-sufficiency.
KMP said one of the first proposals by farmers when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed his post as secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA) was to repeal the Rice Tariffication Law.
The group had held the law largely responsible for
further lowering the income of local palay farmers as it liberalized trading of the staple food grain.
However, the proposal has yet to be considered.
KMP said legislative measures advocating food security and food self-sufficiency such as the Rice Industry Development Act and Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill remain pending in Congress.
The group also lamented the increased budget of the DA has not translated to the well-being of farmers nor the improvement of the entire sector.
KMP said “Last year, when (President Ferdinand) Marcos Jr. assumed the DA secretary portfolio, KMP demanded revive the local agriculture and make domestic food production a priority by suspending conversion of agricultural lands, providing a P15,000 subsidy for Filipino farmers and fisherfolk, allotting 10 percent of the national budget for agriculture and ending reliance on importation of agricultural products starting with the repeal of the Rice Tariffication Law. However, he did the exact opposite and remained callous and indifferent to our demands,” said Rafael Mariano, KMP chairperson emeritus, in a statement.
KMP said the lower palay production last year at 19.76 million metric tons (MT) is a proof of the government’s lack of support to the rice industry.
It added the government is “far from achieving” Marcos’ campaign promise of bringing down the price of rice to P20 per kilo.
“We have only seen rice price surges in the past year. Worse, the government has continued relying on the importation of other common agricultural items instead of strengthening domestic production to provide the people’s and country’s food needs,” Mariano added.
Meanwhile, the DA said there is enough supply of rice to provide for the daily food requirement of Filipinos as the country enters the third quarter of the year.
In a separate statement, DA Undersecretary Leo Sebastian, who heads the Masagana Rice Industry Program, said production will go up 6 percent due to “a bountiful harvest for the January to June rice planting season.”
“This is based on PRISM (Philippine Rice Information System) data of 8.153 million MT palay production in 2022 to 8.605 million MT palay or 5.6 million MT milled rice in 2023,” he said.
Sebastian said this volume, plus the carryover stock of 1.8 million MT milled rice and 1.8 million MT of imports will be enough to fill in the demand and consumption of 7 million MT from January to June.
“By the end of June, the stock available will be good for more than two months, in addition to the incoming supply from the new harvest and import arrivals in the coming months,” Sebastian said.
The DA also said current price movements are due to the high cost of production locally and globally.
Based on public markets monitoring by the DA in the National Capital Region yesterday, the per kilogram (kg) price of imported rice range from P50 to P58 for special variety; P44 to P48 for premium and; P40 to P48 for well milled.
No data is available on the price of regular milled.
For local rice, special variety is at P48 to P60 per kg; premium at P42 to P50 per kg; well-milled at P39 to P46 per kg; and regular milled at P35 to P42 per kg.
Compared to the earliest monitoring of the DA for the year, the price of some rice varieties are now higher by P4 per kg at most.
DA’s monitoring as of January 2, price range of imported rice for special variety is at P46 to P54 per kg; premium at P43 to P48 per kg; well-milled at P40 to P44 per kg; and P37 to P38 per kg for regular milled.
Meanwhile, for local rice, special variety is at P48 to P60 per kg; premium at P40 to P48 per kg; well-milled at P38 to P44 per kg; and regular milled at P35 to P40 per kg.