As DA reviews Rice Tariffication Law, studies reviving NFA importation
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the officials at the Department of Agriculture (DA) to crack down on smuggling even as the government begins reviewing a law that liberalized rice importation.
In a statement, the DA said the President, who is concurrently the Agriculture secretary, said vegetable smuggling and illegal importation of other agricultural products must be addressed in coordination with the Bureau of Customs and Congress.
At the same time, the DA is reviewing the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), which allowed private traders to import rice and barred the National Food Authority (NFA) from doing the same.
Before the law was passed under the Duterte administration, the NFA was responsible for regulating the rice trade and was the only agency allowed to import rice shipments.
But Agriculture Undersecretary Kristine Evangelista said the department is studying if the NFA can be allowed to import rice again, even under a liberalized trading regime.
“That is something being studied and is for further discussion and recommendation,” she said in an interview on ANC.
Although the law sets aside P10 billion a year from tariffs paid to help farmers mechanize their farms and gain access to seedlings, critics of the RTL say the law has failed to lower the cost of rice and hurts farmers by allowing the untrammeled entry of cheap imported rice.
Evangelista said the DA is focusing on “strengthening the NFA to buy more palay from… farmers” as the government pushes for a better yield.
“Our priority will be increasing local production,” she said.
Part of this effort could be an additional subsidy for fertilizers and ways to improve their distribution.
The DA said an additional subsidy is reasonable, especially since the current amount—about P3,000 per farmer—is barely enough as the fertilizer prices continue to shoot up.
Evangelista said a cropping calendar that local government units would follow would significantly prevent production wastage, such as an oversupply of onions from Mindoro or tomatoes from Bukidnon.
“A cropping calendar will also tell us that at this time of the month, this is the expected harvest volume of our farmers. We can work with the municipal agriculturist also to guide them on what the demand is, not only the demand in their area, [but] the demand in the region also. Then overall, the national demand and international demand, if there is one for a certain product,” she said.
This would involve engaging with LGUs to get them to be more active in agriculture.
The department is also doing an inventory of existing post-harvest facilities, to extend the shelf life of agricultural products, Evangelista said.
“Proper storage facilities are important because they will also extend the shelf life of our produce. Not only storage facilities but other facilities involved in post-harvest, our trading post, processing centers, and even slaughterhouses.
We are trying to make an inventory and check if it’s still operational. And make sure that if we are to add more, it will be strategic. Strategic in the sense that it’s [in close] proximity to producers which are the source and also the accessibility to buyers,” she said.
Evangelista said the DA is also looking at a “Masagana 150” program that aims to produce 150 cavans of harvest per hectare.
Masagana 99 was a program of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. designed to increase rice production by giving farmers high-yielding rice varieties through loans. The policy was discontinued as it left farmers in deeper debts.
But the Masagana 150 program will employ new technology to increase yields, Evangelista said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the House committee on ways and means stressed the importance of cheaper fertilizers in the government’s efforts to lower food prices.
Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, the panel’s chairperson said that “fertilizers will almost certainly be mentioned” in the President’s State of the Nation Address.
“One of his quickest victories as Agriculture secretary can be fertilizers. I commend his effort to pursue government-to-government procurement of fertilizers. That gets rid of a lot of middlemen margins,” Salceda said.
He said apart from G2G procurement, he urged the President to release fertilizer discount coupons, backed by the national government.
“We used this system heavily in the province of Albay, when I was governor. It will have immediate consequences to food yield during the ongoing rainy season planting time,” Salceda said.
Salceda said he particularly sees it “being most useful in palay, which is fertilizer-intensive, and in corn, which has cascading effects on the prices of feeds, and therefore of poultry and pork.”
“The tradeable coupons are very strategic at this point, because regardless of whether the farmer beneficiary actually uses them or trades them to another farmer, the end result will be that the discounted fertilizer will find its way into the land. And that will bring higher yields for key crops, while also helping address high fertilizer prices.”
Citing the World Fertilizer Price Index, Salceda said current prices are 75 percent higher year-on-year.