Farm sector needs more investments to make P20/kg rice price possible -Neda

MANILA, Philippines — Achieving President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s promised rice price of P20 per kilogram  will require investments in various essential components and segments of the agricultural sector, said National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) chief Arsenio Balisacan on Wednesday.

In a Palace briefing, Balisacan said the government must be able to invest in irrigation, high-yielding seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, post harvest facilities, logistics and more.

“You need investment, you need the private sector to invest in logistics, to invest in post-harvest facilities, we need government to build more irrigation systems, durable and resilient irrigation systems, we need to develop varieties that are resilient to climate change, to floods. You know, those cannot happen overnight,” said Balisacan.

This comes after Department of Agriculture officials admitted to lawmakers that the targeted P20 per kilogram of rice is difficult to attain.

READ: Lowering price of rice to P20 a kilogram ‘difficult’ – DA execs

Asked when the government’s interventions and agricultural policies could lower the price of rice to P20 per kilo, Balisacan said that was difficult to determine due to various constraints.

“We are not looking at just this time period—we are looking at the sustainability,” said the Neda chief.

“I can’t say that, ‘Oh, by next we should be able to…’, that’s asking for the moon, you know,” he said.

Balisacan said the government could technically order the setting of  a P20 per kilogram price for rice, but it would come at the farmers’ expense.

“Because if you reduce the price of rice to P20, you can actually do that but if you don’t increase productivity… the rice farmers will suffer,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

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