THE UNAVAILABILITY of P27 and P32 per kilo NFA rice in markets and the unconscionable hikes in the prices of commercial rice which even reached P60-P70 per kilogram in places like Zamboanga City are devastating the poor. Has the National Food Authority (NFA) stopped buying palay at an advantageous price to farmers?
NFA was given a budget of P5.1 billion for 2017 for its Food Security Program and P7 billion in 2018 for its Buffer Stocking Program. But in 2017, it only procured a measly 28,344 metric tons or about 0.001 percent of the 19.2 million metric tons total production. In January 2018, it procured a dismal 334 metric tons.
NFA has kept the buying price at P17 per kilogram, a price level set in 2009 yet and has long been outstripped by inflation. This discourages farmers from selling their produce to NFA thus big commercial traders and cartels were able to procure most of the produce in 2017.
Meanwhile, farmers who fell victim to underpricing by unscrupulous landlords and traders are constrained to sell to private traders at giveaway farmgate prices such as P12 per kilogram during the rainy season. Ultimately, the national stock has become a private stock, controlled by cartels manipulating supply and prices.
Early this month, the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged NFA for its diversion of the P5.1 billion subsidy from the national government as payment for its maturing loans, instead of using it for its food security program. Had NFA attained its target procurement, it would not have only added to the mandatory buffer stock requirement, but would have likewise encouraged farmers to produce more. COA also noted the non-competitive buying price of palay in 2017 contributed to cause the rice supply shortages and higher prices of commercial rice in the market.
Meanwhile, the government narrowed the options and protracted the debate on modes of rice importation – whether through the private sector or government-togovernment – delaying the entry of imported rice and practically giving the go-signal to big traders and cartels to jack up prices. Has it totally set aside the option to raise the NFA buying price and volume of local procurement?
The government appears to have adopted a flawed concept of food security that limited itself to “availability, accessibility and utilization” of rice, thus, its total reliance to importation.
Food security must be based on self-sufficiency, and the government should secure the national stock of rice by procuring it at farmgate prices advantageous to poor farmers, and selling it at low retail prices to benefit poor consuming public. The government must boost the capacity of NFA and order it to buy Filipino farmers’ palay at a higher price per kilo on a massive scale and make rice affordable and available nationwide.
