THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has assured the country has enough supply of rice until the lean months despite Vietnam’s recent decision to not enter into new rice export contracts until March 28.
Vietnam, the world’s third largest rice exporter, is currently verifying if it has sufficient domestic supplies during the coronavirus diseases 2029 outbreak and is set to issue a report over the weekend.
The Philippines is among the largest buyers of rice from Vietnam. The Philippines was last year’s biggest buyer of the grain at a record of 2.9 million metric tons.
“The (DA) is exerting all efforts to help provide adequate, accessible and affordable food for every Filipino family during this difficult time. For rice, our major staple, we have enough supply to tide us over towards the lean months. In particular, by the end of the first semester, our rice inventory is good for 67 days,” said DA Secretary William Dar.
Dar said Vietnam’s suspension of issuance of rice export contracts is not expected to immediately affect supply in the country as this time of harvest season that will last until May.
“The possibility of a tightened global supply is always present, as traditional rice exporting countries are expected to favor securing stocks for their own people, amid increased demand and heightened restrictions in global trade and travel,” Dar said.
The DA is encouraging big agribusiness companies and consolidators to directly engage in cluster farming in partnerships with organized farmers’ and fishers’ groups.
Dar said the P32-billion supplemental budget will also help assure sufficient food.
From the amount, P7 billion will be used to increase the procurement fund of the National Food Authority to buy palay from local farmers while P1 billion will be used for the upscaling of KADIWA ni Ani at Kita to handle production monitoring, provincial services on wheels, transportation and trucking services of produce from sources.
A total of P8.5 billion will go to the rice resiliency project broken down into P2 billion for the Enhanced Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund for the provision of fertilizer to 947 targeted municipalities growing inbred rice; P3 billion for the expanded inbred rice production to support advance planting during the wet and dry season in the form of seeds, fertilizer, mechanization, credit and extension; and P3.5 billion on the expanded rice production in areas with good irrigation.
