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SCIENCE
CITY OF MUÑOZ, Nueva Ecija—Price manipulation, not rice
crisis, is what the country is currently facing.
This
assessment was made by Rep. Edno Joson of Nueva Ecija at
the recently concluded two-day media forum on science
and agriculture at the Philippine Rice Research
Institute (Philrice) in this city.
Joson,
also a former administrator of the National Food
Authority (NFA), explained that the rice importations
being made by the government is just a little over what
it made 10 years ago, which is more than 2 million
metric tons.
At the
current state of the dwindling available rice lands
brought about by land conversions for other purposes,
Joson said the rice importation being made by the
country in the said span of time is not proportional to
the ratio of the country’s population growth compared
with its average daily rice consumption.
This
means that the proper rice technology being developed by
Philrice has made impact in increasing the farmers’
harvests, and this needs only proper support from the
government.
He noted
that palay prices have already reached more than P24 per
kilo at the peak of last harvest season that gave
farmers sufficient profits in their produce, to their
delight.
Joson
now laments that prices of palay now are only pegged at
P14 to P16 per kilo at the Intercity Industrial Estate
in Bocaue town in Bulacan, known as a major rice trading
center of the country.
The
reason for this, Joson said, is that most of the
commercial rice traders cannot simply procure palay
because they suffered heavy losses in their capital when
the NFA flooded the market with cheap imported
subsidized rice.
Joson
also fears that palay prices might even go down below
the previous government support price of P12 per kilo
compared with the current P17 because local rice traders
were left with palay stocks that were bought at higher
cost.
At the
current situation, he said local rice traders simply
cannot do business because it will only mean heavy
losses on their capital due to competition coming from
the much-cheaper NFA rice in the local market.
“The
government should stop importing rice and instead should
focus more in procuring the palay harvests of our
farmers,” Joson said, adding that the intervention of
the NFA in providing cheap rice to consumers has left
farmers to live below the poverty line.
The
price manipulation initiated by the flooding of cheaper
imported rice by the NFA in the local market, Joson
said, has only created a rice crisis, adding that the
government should have concentrated on providing the
farmers with all the support they need to increase their
harvest and leave rice importation to private traders.
The
government should have initiated a calibrated increase
in prices of basic commodities and income so as not to
create economic displacement for farmers and consumers,
Joson said.
He added
the government should have let market forces dictate
prices of basic commodities. As it is, the current
dilemma the country’s farmers are facing would only add
more woes to the food-security problem of the country on
the staple food.
He noted
the production cost of palay as assessed by the NFA was
pegged at around P12 to P13.50 per kilo last season.
That is expected to go higher this coming harvest season
because of the spiraling costs of farm inputs, he said.
At the
current palay price, he said farmers will be left with a
very minimal profit on their produce, and what is worse
is if palay prices continue to slide down, which would
leave farmers with a deficit on their income, it may
prompt farmers to no longer toil on their farms in the
future. |
