Political rice

THE SAMAHANG Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) is calling for the abolition of the National Food Authority (NFA).

Reacting to reports that the NFA prefers to import rice from Vietman or India, SINAG head Rosendo So echoed fears that funds earmarked for the purchase of locally grown palay might be diverted to import rice from those countries.

“If the NFA will not help the country’s grain and farming industry by buying domestically produced rice, then the agency should be abolished,” So said.

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The reaction came after President Bongbong Marcos’ call for a review of the rice tariffication law (RTL) passed during the incumbency of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

The Department of Agriculture quoted the President as having directed the agency to “review what needs to be reviewed necessary to empower the NFA.” This likely means a revival of the powers previously held but removed by the RTL.

The RTL transferred a bulk of the NFA’s regulatory functions to the Bureau of Plant Industry. The law also clipped the NFA’s power over import licensing.

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Former DA Secretary Manny Pinol has quipped that President Duterte was misled into signing the RTL.

Rice prices are rising despite its enactment.

The RTL essentially allowed importation to ensure availability of rice in the domestic market. It is meant to address rice shortages.

The intent was to stabilize prices with reduced government intervention. Ultimately, the consumer benefits from abundant supply and lower retail prices.

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The law also created a fund to be grown from tariff revenues of rice imports.

The Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) is designed to help Filipino farmers machineries and equipment, buoy the propagation of inbred rice seeds for seed production and trade, and provide a credit facility to rice farmers and cooperatives.

Do all these provisions look good only on paper?

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Not only are rice prices rising, local farmers are also reeling from the competition put up by rice imports.

Cheap rice imports are preferred by traders who make a killing in the domestic market.

Expensive fertilizer and farm implements add to the woes of farmers.

Incidentally, farmhand labor is harder to access in the countryside because of the easy money provided by the 4Ps.

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Farmers have yet to see how the purportedly pro-consumer RTL can also lift them out of a long breakeven spell.

On the other hand, however, a continued heavy reliance on importation is no assurance against rising prices. As we might actually be seeing now, the country is held hostage by world prices and the export behavior of rice producing countries.

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Sadly, the Commission on Audit has flagged the DA over its failure to download to farmer beneficiaries more than 800 thousand bags of rice seeds funded under the RCEF.

The DA also failed to distribute about two thousand pieces of farm machinery, thereby defeating the spirit behind the enactment of the RTL. Farmers are once again at the losing end, sandbagged by an inefficient bureaucracy.

Rice is not only staple food. It is also a political commodity in this country. Political fortunes have been made or will be unmade in the name of rice prices.

What role will the NFA play, moving forward?/PN