The Department of Agriculture is considering non-tariff measures on rice to help farmers cope with rising imports.
According to Agriculture Secretary William Dar, the department would inspect ports and implement stricter requirements for the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary clearances necessary for rice shipments.
Farmers earlier complained the price of palay or unmilled rice dropped to P7 to P11 a kilo due to a flood of cheap rice from abroad under the new tariff-based regime that replaced import quotas.
“We have to go through non-tariff measures that would manage the importation of rice [because there are too many,]” Dar told reporters.
Government offers loans to rice farmers as palay prices fall to P7 a kilo.
In the Senate, Senator Cynthia Villar gave assurances the government was doing everything to help farmers like providing them zero-interest loan payable in eight years in the midst of reported low buying prices of palay.
During the Senate inquiry into the newly implemented Rice Tariffication Law, Villar said a P15,000 loan was being given to farmers affected by the liberation of rice import.
“They can avail of this amount without the usual collateral to secure a loan from a bank,” Villar told the farmers and stakeholders in the agricultural sector.
She said the loan was aside from the P10-Rice Competitive Enhancement Fund under the Rice Tariffication Law or Republic Act 11203, which removes the quota on rice imports and imposes tariffs.
It allocates the collected revenue of P10 billion a year to RCEF which will be given to Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) for the procurement of farm equipment and machinery and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) to buy inbred seeds.
She said the farm mechanization would lower the labor cost, resulting to increased yield and income for the farmers. The use of inbred seeds will produce six metric tons of rice from the current four metric tons.
“Mechanization of farm labor is our solution in reducing the cost of producing palay in the country, which is pegged at P12 per kilo compared to Vietnam, which produces a kilo of palay at P6 only,” Villar said.
Villar said experts had analyzed the cost difference between two countries and found out the biggest difference of P3.40 as labor cost.
She also told representatives of concerned government agencies to prioritize using the remaining RCEF to buy farm equipment and inbred seeds for the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Iloilo and Negros Occidental.
The four provinces, she said, are the top rice-producing provinces in the country.
Under RCEF, P5 million worth of farm equipment and machinery will benefit rice farmers in each of the 947 rice-producing towns in the Philippines.
She also said the government has been providing a lot of fund extention support in education through the Agricultural Training Institute and the Technical Skills Development Authority for skills training in rice crop production, modern rice farming techniques, seed production, farm mechanization, farm machinery servicing and maintenance and knowledge and technology transfer.
According to the senator, she has put up four farm schools located in Bacoor, Cavite; San Jose del Monte, Bulacan; San Miguel, Iloilo and Davao City that give free training programs on agricultural.
She said they had also identified schools to teach trainors who would then impart what they learned to the farmers.
Among the 21 schools identified is the Mariano State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte.
At the same time, she directed the National Food Authority to use their annual P7-billion to buy the palay from local farmers and sell them in domestic market.
While NFA has been stripped the power to issue Import Permits, which had resulted to a rice cartel, Villar insisted the fact remains NFA was mandated to buy the palay of local farmers.
She asked the farmers to list the places where the low palay prices were so that the NFA could buy them at P17 per kilo.
The senator also noted that giving NFA the authority to import rice again will be contrary to the spirit of rice liberalization.
“We have entered to the liberalize model. Everything can enter the Philippines but they have to pay the tariff.
At present, a rice trader, a farmer or a farmer group or association should pay 35percent tariff for rice imported from ASEAN countries.
Outside ASEAN, she said the tariff imposed was 50 percent.
But Villar said President Rodrigo Duterte can intervene for a higher tariff.
“All he needs to do is call the WT0 and informed them about his plan to increase tariff on rice imports.”
Villar also asked the NFA and the Department of Agriculture to check on reports that some farmers’ groups that palay is being sold as low as P7 or P8.