Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Secretary Emmanuel Piñol is seeking an amendment to the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) to assure farmers that the market will not be flooded with imported rice when they harvest.
“Earlier today (Wednesday), local radio station DXND asked me in a live interview on what should be done to avert a looming world rice supply crisis as Vietnam, the Philippines’ main source of rice, has itself started importing rice from India. I made two simple recommendations based on my experience as a local government executive, former Agriculture Secretary, and most of all, as a farmer,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Apart from revising the RTL, the MinDA chair also seeks at using an amended Magna Carta for Small Farmers as the legal leg, government could set a ‘palay’ farm gate price of PHP20 per kilo to be followed by both the National Food Authority (NFA) and the commercial traders.
Piñol added that if such recommendations are considered, the farmers will immediately start plowing the fields to plant rice because they know they will make money. “To avert an impending world rice supply crisis, however, these recommendations must be implemented right away,” he said.
He also recounted that in early 2000 when the price of milled rice went through the roof and the Philippines had to import rice at over USD1,000 per metric ton.
“With the farm gate price of palay hitting historic high, almost all available spaces, including the road allowance along the national highway were planted with rice. The point is if the rice farmer knows he will make money and he will be protected by the government, he would not even wait for the free seeds or fertilizer or the ridiculous “cash and food aid” being distributed by the Department of Agriculture (DA),” Piñol stressed.
Those who are saying that we do not have the area to plant rice should join me in my journeys to the countryside in Mindanao and I will gladly show them the vast unutilized plains around the Agusan Marsh, Liguasan Marsh, and Lake Lanao, just to name a few, he said.
“Some may view these as over-simplifying a complex global supply problem but that is what it really is, a simple problem with simple solutions. So many ideas could be presented to address the problem but everything boils down to one question: Will the rice farmer make decent income-producing rice?” Piñol added. (PNA)
