Gov’t placates poor farmers: Wait for rice law benefits

Four government agencies on Thursday called on the consuming public to give the rice tariffication law a chance, stressing that the benefits of the new policy would not be felt entirely in its first year of implementation.

Key officials from the departments of agriculture, finance and trade and industry and the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said that while they recognized the shocks brought by the reform, “this is not an indication of the impact of the law.”

The collective statement seemed to have been prompted by reports of palay prices drastically sliding to P12 a kilo as farmers struggled to compete with the arrival of more affordable imported rice.

Concerned Filipinos have even started the “itaas ang presyo ng palay (increase the price of palay)” challenge on social media. The online movement has already garnered thousands of responses.

Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua countered reports of low palay prices, saying price trends showed the farm-gate price of the staple would not fall below the production cost of P12 per kilo.

He added since the passage of the law, rice was no longer among the top 10 contributors to the country’s inflation uptick. It also led to rice prices declining and rice inflation turning negative.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar and Assistant Trade Secretary Ruth Castelo added that the government has put in place several interventions to help palay farmers transition to the new rice regime.

The law funnels P10 billion annually to the rice industry for seeds and machinery provisions, extension services and credit to farmers. On top of that, both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry have instituted reforms to ease the buying and selling of local palay and rice.

The new rice law also minimized smuggling, Assistant Finance Secretary Tony Lambino said.