Gov’t urged to intensify palay purchases

A research and policy advocacy think tank has urged the government to address the low farmgate prices of palay by increasing the budget intended for the procurement of the staple and by fast-tracking the release of funds under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

In a statement released on Monday, the Action for Economic Reform (AER) said the Department of Agriculture (DA) in particular could be guided by its new data systems to track the needs of palay farmers and use RCEF to assist them.

It added that ramping up palay buying operations could immediately address the decline in prices, especially in provinces where quotations have gone down to as low as P12 a kilo.

“The data [from DA’s Philippine Rice Information System (PRiSM) and the Rice Fund Impact Monitoring System] can further guide the DA’s rice program implementers as well as farmers’ organizations in targeting where [machinery] should be poured in and where palay procurement by the National Food Authority (NFA) and local governments can be focused,” it said.

“Different areas have different conditions and interventions definitely have to be area-specific. The information will also be most useful in guiding DA’s [community-based organizations] to monitor fund utilization and the impact of different productivity and competitiveness enhancement programs,” it added.

AER said that in doing so, the industry might see a decline in the production cost of palay, which currently average at P12 a kilo, or double the cost of producing the staple in countries where the Philippines import rice such as Vietnam and Thailand.

The AER’s call was made as the row between the DA and the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) continued to intensify, with the former asserting that palay prices were stable in contrast to FFF’s claim that palay prices were now lower than production costs.

To alleviate the plight of farmers, the NFA has been aggressive in buying palay. For September alone, it said that it was able to procure two million bags of palay and was ready to buy more stocks. INQ