THE P29 rice program for the marginalized sector will now run for a year, according to Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. of the Department of Agriculture (DA) .
This will enable the DA gather sufficient data and insights on how it can keep the cost of the food staple down for a larger number of Filipinos while sustaining farmers’ income.
“This program is a targeted intervention. It’s a large-scale trial to determine if we can sell rice at these low levels for an extended period with government subsidy. We will assess the data comprehensively, back track to the farm level and determine what needs to be done to make this program sustainable,” said Tiu Laurel, in a statement.
“This large-scale trial will gather data from farm to retail that’s why this cannot be done in a month, or two months. This will be one-year program so we can review the entire chain from buying seeds, planting them, utilizing fertilizer, sourcing fertilizer, harvesting, warehousing, up to the retailing stage and determine where we could save on costs to lower prices to consumers,” Tiu Laurel added.
The P29 per kg rice is sold to Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino beneficairies senior citizens, persons with disabilities, solo parents and indigenous people in limited areas.
Tiu Laurel said the program will be expanded to cover areas outside Luzon by August or September and ideally to all the 1,500 municipalities of the country.
