THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is considering providing low-interest financing for rice inventory purchases by entities seeking to source palay, or unmilled rice, directly from farmers.

“We’ll provide traders, cooperatives, local government units and other stakeholders a new inventory financing program from LANDBANK at 2% interest, provided they buy directly from farmers,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said during a public hearing on the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law.

Mr. Dar said that he will also look into restoring the palay buying price to P17 per kilo, from P20.70 for farmer organizations, and P20.40 for individual farmers with incentives added. He added P17 will also be the basis for the new financing program.

“We will process this but that is the direction,” he said in a chance interview.

“The incentive system was (offered) during the crisis situation in 2018, so I think we will have to revisit that formally in the NFA [National Food Authority] council so that during this period we can cover and really buy more palay at P17 per kilo,” he said.

The incentive system was implemented in October 2018, which added a P3.00/kg buffer stock incentive on top of the P0.20/kg drying, P0.20/kg delivery, and P0.30/kg Cooperative Development Incentive Fee.

Asked to comment, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) Chairman Rosendo O. So noted that the NFA should be able to absorb the entire domestic harvest, with the season due to begin next month.

“Ang harvest time talaga kasi is next month. Dapat kasi ngayon yung mga binebenta (palay) kaya i-absorb ng NFA… kasi konti lang ito kasi may P1 billion pa sila… so kung may ganong problema kailangang pumasok ang NFA,” he said. (The harvest is next month. Palay sold today should be absorbed by the NFA… it’s only a small volume and the NFA still has P1 billion… if there are problems in selling palay, the NFA should step in.) — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

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