Farmer welfare should be protected in P20 rice program - agri group

Metro Manila, Philippines - The government must make sure the pilot program to sell rice for P20 per kilogram will not affect farmgate prices of palay, an agricultural group said Thursday, April 24.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. announced on Wednesday the P20 rice program in the Visayas, with agriculture officials studying it “to be sustainable until 2028” on a nationwide-scale.

The Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) said this could likely result in a drop in farmgate prices.

“‘Yan kasi supposedly ay temporary measure kasi gusto mo lang makamura ng bigas,” SINAG executive director Jayson Cainglet told NewsWatch Plus. “Masu-sustain mo lang talaga ‘yung murang bigas kapag napababa mo ‘yung presyo ng production ng palay.”

[Translation: Supposedly, a subsidized rice program is a temporary measure to sell cheap rice. You can only sustain it if palay production costs are low.]

Cainglet said the farmgate price of palay is at P16/kg, and costs to produce palay are from P14/kg to P15/kg.

“Ideally, mabibenta mo talaga ‘yung 20 pesos na rice kung ang cost of production mo ng palay is nasa P8 lang,” he said, adding that the government must help lower farmers’ expenses and increase their yield to at least 6 tons per hectare.

[Translation: Ideally, you can sell rice for P20 if the cost of palay production is at P8 only.]

Cheap rice will come from stocks of the National Food Authority (NFA), and sold to local government units (LGUs) for P33/kg.

Laurel said the government may allot P3.5 billion to P4.5 billion to subsidize the program.

Cainglet said SINAG’s calculations showed the NFA could sell the stocks for P34/kg.

“So, ‘yung P4.5 billion na ‘yan, ang ikakalugi niya ng P14 per kilo lalabas, makakakuha siya ng around 300,000 metric tons ng bigas, which is almost ‘yung NFA buffer stock na nine days,” he said.

[Translation: If the DA will subsidize P14/kg, the P4.5-billion budget could cover around 300,000 metric tons of rice, which is almost the nine-day buffer stock of NFA.]

The NFA currently has around 358,000 metric tons of buffer stocks — something that Laurel would want to “move out and dispose” amid the harvest season.

In February, the agriculture chief declared a food security emergency in a bid to decongest NFA warehouses but there was no significant pull-out of stocks by LGUs.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the P20 rice program fulfils his campaign promise.

Farmers groups Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Amihan called the move “a desperate ploy to salvage crumbling public trust.”

In a statement, they called for the repeal of the rice tariffication law and redirect government resources toward revitalizing local production through genuine land reform, rural development, and food sovereignty.