Even with rice tarrification, the National Food Authority (NFA) will continue to provide the public, especially the poor, with affordable and safe rice, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles has assured.
“The President will ensure that even with the tarrification of rice and liberalization of the industry, the NFA shall continue to provide the public, particularly the less fortunate, with rice that is affordable and safe,” said Nograles.
Nograles added that to ensure that the prices of rice is accessibly priced once the rice tarrification law is passed, the NFA will be directed to buy palay directly from local farmers.
“Once the law is passed, the NFA will be directed to buy palay from our local farmers and, together with the Department of Agriculture, to focus on developing cost-efficient systems that will help reduce the production costs of locally-produced rice and stabilize prices so that this food staple is accessibly priced,” said Nograles.
Meanwhile, Senators Koko Pimentel, Francis Escudero and Cynthia Villar have also assured the public that the non-availability of cheap NFA rice in local markets with the passage of the Rice Tariffication law should not be a cause for alarm as affordable rice will be made available through competition.
Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol was earlier quoted in a news report as saying that the NFA will stop selling cheap rice when the Rice Tariffication bill is signed into law.
Malacañang said the measure is expected to be signed by President Rodrigo Duterte “any time soon.”
Prior to the passage of the Rice Tariffication Bill in Congress, President Duterte has urged for the immediate passage of the measure to “address the urgent need to improve availability of rice in the country, prevent artificial rice shortages, reduce the prices of rice in the market, and curtail the prevalence of corruption and cartel domination in the rice industry.”
Once enacted, quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice imports will be replaced by tariffs, opening the importation of rice to private traders.
“Once the law is passed, the NFA will be directed to buy palay from our local farmers.”
Under the measure, the functions of the NFA would be limited to buying palay from local farmers and maintaining the country’s rice buffer stock.
Pimentel said the actual objective of the law is to allow NFA “competitors” to join the market.
“The idea is to have low priced rice in the market through competition. Low-priced rice doesn’t have to be NFA imported,” Pimentel said.
“NFA has gotten too complacent, to put it mildly, given its monopoly power to import rice. Naka idlip ang NFA kaya gumawa ang Kongreso ng radikal na hakbang para magising sa katotohanan ang NFA (The NFA slept on the job, that’s why Congress made a radical step to wake it up to the truth),” the legislator added.
Meanwhile, Senator Escudero added that while liberalizing rice importation would lead to cheap rice in the market, the Rice Tariffication bill also assures that safeguards are instituted to protect local rice farmers.
“Developing cost-efficient systems will help reduce the production costs of locally-produced rice and stabilize prices so that this food staple is accessibly priced.”
“The provisions on the safeguard and assistance to farmers should be given equal import since rice, as a commodity, is always a balancing act. Prices will go down, but we also have to give safeguards and support to our farmers,” Escudero said.
“It’s a balancing act because prices have to be low for consumers but, at the same time, we should help our farmers make a living,” the lawmaker added.
One of the main features of the bill is the creation of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) or Rice Fund.
Senator Villar, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, said the RCEF addresses the problems identified by the government think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) that are hampering Filipino famers’ competitiveness.
“These are the lack of mechanization, lack of good inbred rice seeds, lack of access to cheap credit facilities and lack of training,” the chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food said.
Under the Rice Tariffication bill, the Rice Fund will be allocated as follows: 50 percent for grants to farmers’ associations, registered rice cooperatives, and local government units in the form of rice equipment; 30 percent for the development, propagation and promotion of inbred rice seeds to rice farmers and organizations; 10 percent in the form of credit at preferential rates to rice farmers and cooperatives; and 10 percent for extension services to teach rice farmers modern methods of farming, seed production, and farm mechanization.
Beneficiaries of the rice fund will be listed in the registry system for basic sectors in agriculture, which will also be managed by the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The bill also mandates the completion of the rice industry road map to encourage sustainable investment and to restructure delivery of the government’s support services in the rice industry.
Earlier, Piñol said rice tariffication would revamp the image of the NFA and remove corruption issues that has persistently hounded the agency.
