The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) is currently studying how the government could keep rice prices affordable while also safeguarding the welfare of farmers, a DEPDev official said.

“The issue is, you want to maintain low and stable inflation, especially rice prices, but at the same time, you also want to safeguard the farmers. So we are looking for that win-win solution,” DEPDev Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said at the sidelines of the Communication and Advocacy Workshop on Economic and Financial Literacy held in Pasig City on Wednesday.

Latest data showed that inflation settled at 1.4 percent as of June this year as rice prices continued to ease.

Rice deflation in particular, hit a record low of 14.3 percent in June.

Farmers groups earlier expressed alarm as palay (unhusked rice) reportedly dropped to as low as PHP13 per kilogram.

Edillon said DEPDEv is looking at several options to come up with a win-win solution.

One of these include providing direct assistance to farmers, minimizing the impact of the reduced tariff on imported rice.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. issued an executive order last year, reducing the tariff of imported rice to 15 percent from 35 percent to help reduce rice prices.

The reduced tariff, however, is subject to a regular review.

Edillon said DEPDev part of the review includes determining if the current assistance being given to farmers actually works.

“We need to find out which ones really work, which ones do they really need. And how do we improve probably the delivery,” she said.

“So that’s something that we will also be including in our review.”

Edillon said DEPDEv is also studying the possible setting of a floor price for palay procurement to help protect local farmers.

The Department of Agriculture earlier emphasized that the floor price, which refers to a state-imposed minimum price for goods or services, must at least cover the production cost of palay farmers.

“Actually, that’s another thing that we’re looking at in terms of a win-win. One of the considerations would be that we don’t want farmgate prices to fall below like this. It will be very tricky, though, operationalizing it and even estimating. But that’s something that we’re studying as well,” Edillon said.

Edillon said results of the study, including the review of the reduced rice tariff, would be released in November and presented to Marcos. (PNA)