Dar urges LGUs to buy palay from farmers to address falling prices

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary William Dar is urging local government units of the country’s top rice-producing provinces to buy palay or unhusked rice from farmers in a bid to address declining prices in the main cropping season.

“It is that time of the year again wherein we are counting on the continued support of LGUs, including multi-purpose farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) as they have done since 2019 to help the Department of Agriculture (DA) through the National Food Authority (NFA) to buy from their farmer-constituents and thus stabilize prices in their respective areas,” Dar said in a statement yesterday.

“We hope to institutionalize our partnership with the LGUs and FCAs as it offers a win-win situation for farmers not only during harvest of rice, but also of corn and other crops, providing them [an] assured market and reasonable [price] for their produce,”Dar said.

Various farmer groups have raised concerns over the declining farmgate prices of palay, which are expected to further drop when the bulk of harvest comes in October to November.

According to the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), palay prices were trading at P12 to P15 per kilo based on the initial survey among FFF chapters in Pangasinan, Tarlac, Mindoro Occidental, Negros Occidental, Zamboanga Sibugay, Davao del Norte and South Cotabato.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) also showed that farmgate prices of palay averaged at P16.94 per kilo from January to June, 2.8 percent lower than the same period last year.

Figures presented by Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan yesterday showed that the average farmgate price of fresh or wet palay across all regions, as of the second week of September, registered at P14.89 a kilo, with P9 being the minimum price and P19 per kilo being the maximum.

Cayanan, however, emphasized that the average farmgate price of dry palay is higher at P18.10 per kilo, with P12 per kilo being the minimum and P23 per kilo being the maximum price.

FFF board chairman Leonardo Montemayor attributed the declining palay prices to a number of factors such as the lack of mechanical dryers during the rainy season and the absence of price support from the NFA.

He also cited continuing rice importation as another cause of the decline in palay prices.

Other groups that have also raised concerns over dropping palay prices are Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) and the Amihan Peasant Women and Anakpawis party-list.

Meanwhile, Dar commended LGUs that have already implemented efforts in the procurement of palay.

“We fully appreciate the support of LGUs, particularly of the country’s top rice-producing provinces that augment NFA’s palay procurement fund of P7 billion yearly, enough to buy 300,000 metric tons (MT) at a maximum price of P19 per kilo,”Dar said.

The DA cited the case of Nueva Ecija as an example as its LGU allocated a budget of P2 billion, part of its loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), to buy palay at P1 to P2 per kilo, higher than the prevailing farmgate price.

DA Central Luzon director Cris Bautista said the P2 billion fund covers palay procurement, hauling, drying, storage, milling and packaging.

Bautista said Nueva Ecija was able to use P1.2 billion for said activities during the recent dry season.

The DA is finalizing the guidelines on the rice procurement process for the government’s “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” or 4P, together with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), where indigent families receive P600 in cash as rice a?lowance.

Last year, the DSWD set aside P31 billion for the distribution of NFA rice to beneficiaries of 4Ps, instead of giving them directly the P600 rice allowance.

The DA expects palay harvest for the second semeste to reach more than 11 million MT which will bring the projected total annual production to more than 20 million MT, higher than the 19.4 million MT recorded last year.