Duterte says gov’t should buy palay from local farmers at reasonable price

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday directed the National Food Authority to buy the palay produce of local farmers at competitive prices, even as he defended the law that liberalized the importation of rice.

Duterte said the government and the farmers should arrive at a compromise on the price of palay.

“What the solution should be or will be for the Secretary of Agriculture to buy all. Magkano ba presyo nila? Magkano presyo nila, bilhin natin. Lugi? Lugi talaga. Are we wasting money? No. We are not wasting an industry. We’re helping an industry. So malugi tayo, eh di malugi,” he told reporters in Malacañang.

“You cannot demand a price. You arrive at a compromise of how much you’re willing to lose a little bit. Medyo tapatan lang basta hindi malugi yung pagod nila, they are compensated,” Duterte added.

However, Duterte asked farmers not to ask for an “unreasonable” price because Agriculture Secretary William Dar “would never go into that kind of arrangement.”

Farmers have asked for government intervention as palay prices plunged to as low as P7 per kilo following the implementation of the rice tariffication law, which Duterte signed in February.

Duterte defended the measure, saying it was “intended to serve the greater interest of the majority of the people.”

The law aims to ensure that market rice prices would remain affordable by replacing the quantitative restrictions on rice imports with tariff.

Safety nets were included in the law, among which was a comprehensive assistance program worth P10 billion a year for the next six years.

The Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) would be used to provide key interventions to support farmers and enhance their competitiveness and profitability, including farm machinery and equipment to improve farm operations, rice seed development, propagation, and promotion, expanded rice credit, and extension services.

A portion of the rice tariff revenues in excess of P10 billion would meanwhile be used to provide direct financial assistance to rice farmers affected by the removal of the quantitative restriction and for diversification to high-value crops.

Dar suspected hoarding by some traders and millers to be behind the declining prices of palay even as he said the government will be strict in implementing sanitary and phytosanitary measures to “manage” the entry of imported rice.

The Cabinet official also said the Department of Agriculture proposed the distribution of rice to poor families as an alternative to releasing monthly cash doles so they could buy the staple food. —LDF, GMA News