Farmers are Poor Due to Manipulative Traders, Importers – NIA Boss

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan - The reasons why Filipino farmers are poor because palay or unhusked rice are sold cheaply to traders who manipulate their prices and imported cheap staple floods the market unabated, according to National Irrigation Administration Region-1 Manager Gaudencio “Dennis” de Vera.

“Pag nagbenta sila aabot ng P14 e kung ang production cost mga P7 or P10 ang liit ng ginansiya, di ba?” he cited.

Photo of Filipino farmer is internet grabbed.

The penury of the Filipinos is aggravated with the influx of imported cheap rice that competes with the produce of the local farmers.

“Siyempre pag importation mas mura ang bigas. Siyempre mapipilitan na ibenta ng mura ang production nila,” De Vera explained why the Filipino farmers are susceptible to lower their prices because of the cheap imported staple.

In March 5, 2019 then President Rodrigo Duterte signed into statute the rice liberalization law known as Republic Act (RA) No. 11203 or Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).

 The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.  however was not prioritizing the review of the RTL, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said, noting it has been effective in controlling inflation.

“I think revisiting the Rice Tariffication Law is not a priority of this government,” Diokno said as he noticed “that it (RTL) was not mentioned in the first State of the Nation Adress (SONA) of the President last July 25 this year.

AMO fertilizer founder lawyer Eric Acuña said however that the seaweed based organic fertilizer is the silver bullet to stop the rampages of cheap Vietnam rice in the Philippines.

He explained that if the cost of production (COP) of the Vietnam rice is P6.00 per kilo versus the Philippines’ P12. 41 a kilo he can compete with a P4.53 a kilo by using his plant BRIX growth enhancer technology.

“The cost of production of Vietnam is P6.00, tariff imposed by the Philippines government on that price is 35% or P2.10 a kilo, freight cost is P1.00, and importer’s profit is P1.00,” he cited the landed cost of P10 a kilo.

He said that with AMO organic fertilizer applied to a hectare of a rice farm, a kilo of the local palay will cost P4.53 that could threaten the Vietnam staple.

“Habol natin is for everybody to try. We are willing to conduct free farm trial, “ Acuña  who impressed several sectors like National Tobacco Administration after he gave them a free experiment, stressed.

To mitigate the deplorable plights of the Filipino farmers and hog raisers, NIA Regional Manager De Vera said the government should identify the provinces with abundant harvest not only of palay and onions but pork where their imported counterpart products compete unfairly with them. He said these products should be banned to proliferate in these provinces.