Incoming DAR chief Estrella says P20/kilo of rice hard to attain at present

For incoming Agrarian Reform secretary Conrado Estrella III, bringing down the price of rice to P20 per kilo is difficult to achieve at this time.

"Alam mo, the President is so realistic about it, sabi niya, this is our aspiration that we are going to lower the price of rice and I think it will be possible, but if you do serious pencil pushing, talagang pag-aaralan mo, 'yung P20 eh mukhang sa ngayon medyo mahihirapan pa tayo (If you study it, the P20 per kilo of rice is difficult to attain right now)," Estrella told reporters on Thursday.

He mentioned the price of fuel products and fertilizers as the reasons a cheaper price of rice is impossible to attain right now.

"Considering the, alam mo naman ‘yung presyo ng langis ngayon, pagkatapos 'yung presyo pa ng abono, pero kung 'yung mapalapit lang nang kaunti, mataas taas nang kaunti doon at maabot natin, I want to be realistic ‘no, I don't want to window dress... what I'm saying, and what I see, 'yun lang malapit doon, palagay ko pwede na," he said.

(You know the price of fuel, the price of fertilizers... but if we can peg it at a little higher price or at a price nearer to P20, we can do that.)

Asked about the attainable price of rice, Estrella said this could be at P27 or P28 per kilo, noting that the P20 per kilo still needs further study.

"Siguro hanggang mga P27 nga yan, P27, P28, pwede pwede na ‘yan. Pero 'yung P20, eh talagang pag-aaralan ko ng husto 'yan, pag-aaralan namin ng husto," he said.

(Maybe we can achieve P27 or P28... But the P20, it still needs further study.)

Outgoing Agrarian Reform Secretary Bernie Cruz had proposed the consolidation of rice production to lower the price to P20 per kilo.

He said it would be possible to achieve the P20 per kilogram price should the incoming administration look into the concept of mega farms through merging the production of small farms.

Achievable but 'challenge is huge'

Outgoing Agriculture Secretary William Dar said bringing the retail price of rice to as low as P20 per kilo could be realized, but it would be a huge challenge to accomplish.

“We can realize this target,” Dar said during the Laging Handa briefing.

However, he said there are “challenges” that need to be addressed in order to bring down the price of rice to the promised level.

“Number one challenge [is] we have to target much higher [yields],” he said, noting that the yield for inbred rice can be increased to 7.5 metric tons (MT) per hectare from 4.5MT per hectare in the next four years.

Meanwhile, for hybrid rice the yield can be targeted to increase to 10 MT per hectare from the current 6 MT per hectare.

“The challenge is huge but with this political will that we have and prioritization given to agriculture itong challenges ay pwedeng maisakatuparan (these challenges can be addressed),” Dar said.

The Cabinet official said that increasing rice production yields coupled with additional investment in building post-harvest facilities such as for drying, milling, warehousing can bring down the price of rice.

Dar said that the incoming administration should look into a “Build, Build, Build” for irrigation as there are still 1.1 million hectares of agricultural lands that need irrigation systems development for long-term sustainability.

He said the biggest challenge for now is the increasing production cost due to rising fuel and fertilizers amid the global supply disruptions caused by the Ukraine-Russia war.

Latest data available from the Department of Agriculture (DA) show that the average prices of rice from P38.00 to P50.00 per kilogram for local, and from P37.00 to P52.00 per kilogram for imports as of June 6, 2022.

During his presidential campaign, President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he would recommend a price cap on rice to bring down the prices to as low as P20 per kilogram.

Marcos had said that his campaign promise of reducing the price of rice to as low as P20 per kilo is an aspiration, noting that there is a need to fix the value chain to attain that.

The value chain is the series of stages involved in producing a product or service that is sold to consumers, with each state adding to the value of the product or service.—AOL, GMA News