Farmers cry for help as palay prices drop

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Monday called on the Department of Agriculture to investigate the alarming drop in the buying price of locally grown rice, which has reportedly plummeted to as low as P12 a kilo, making the staple cheaper than a COVID-19 mask.“I’m urging DA to look into it. [I also] proposed to [provide] financial assistance to rice farmers,” Recto told the Inquirer in a Viber message.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the average farmgate price of palay continued its downtrend. During the first week of September, the price fell further to P17.64 a kilo from P18.04 the previous week. Citing the government’s study of rice production in 2018, Recto said a farmer would earn an average of P33,355 per hectare if rice was sold at P20.40 a kilo. “But at P12 a kilo the farmer will not earn anything, as in zero,” he said.“Income [from rice production] is an economic driver in many rural economies, which have been absorbing the recent unemployed [from urban areas],” Recto said.

With that funding, the NFA could only buy over 500,000 metric tons of palay or about 2 percent of the country’s palay production at P19 a kilo. The NFA in the province will buy 485,000 bags of palay until the last quarter of the year, using its P461-million budget allotted for the project.

Calling out Sen. Cynthia Villar re this and the Dept. of Agriculture. Why can’t we follow Thailand with regards to farm produce?

And yet here we are buying milled rice at 70 pesos per kilo.

this is sad. hope our next president will make agriculture top priority.

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