PALAYAN CITY – A large group of farmers called on the government on Wednesday to increase the National Food Authority’s (NFA’s) support price from the current P17 per kilo to P20 per kilo as it decried the “very low prevailing prices in commercial market.”
This as Dante Lazatin, president of the Irrigators Association (IA) decried the prevailing price of freshly harvested rice in commercial market which is reportedly as low as P14 to P15.50 per kilo.
“It’s P14 per kilo at farm gate and increases to up to P15.50 when dried,” Lazatin lamented.
While thanking the government for the farm equipment it distributed to the farmers, Lazatin said their primary concern remains to be the price of their produce.
“Our farmers need at least P20 per kilo to earn from farming,” he said, saying prices of farm inputs, which include fertilizers and pesticides, continue to rise.
But Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala who led, along with Gov. Aurelio Umali, the distribution of farm equipment to farmers’ organizations here, readily rejected the appeal.
“Once na itinaas natin ito, hindi na natin kayang ibalik,” he said, admitting that the NFA Council is now tackling the issue.
At the present procurement price of P17 a kilo, he said, the rice should be sold at somewhere between P29 to P30 a kilo but is sold at bulk at P25 a kilo.
“Kung ang hiling po ng mga magsasaka’y bente (P20/kilo), baka po ito’y maging cuarenta pesos (P40/kilo) ang presyo ng bigas,” he said.
“Dapat po nating alalahananin yun pong nasa ibang lugar, especially na magsasaka…pag umani sila, nagbenta sila after a few months buyer na rin po sila ng bigas,” he stressed. “saka alalahanin po natin na ang national buying public na po ang ating kalaban dito,” Alcala added.
Alcala who vowed for a total stop in rice importation in 2013, reiterated that the government managed to slash to 860,000 metric rice import in 2011 or only one third of the 2.4 million metric tons in 2010 when the country, he said, has become the no. 1 rice importer in the world.
