Farmers troop to NFA as palay prices drop

DAGUPAN CITY, PANGSINAN, Philippines — Farmers have been trooping to the National Food Authority (NFA) to avoid selling their palay (unmilled rice) to rice traders who buy their produce at the farm gate price of P13 per kilogram.

The NFA pays P17 per kg to farmers’ groups and individuals, and up to P20.70 per kg at NFA buying stations.

Oftociano Manalo, former president of the Pangasinan Federation of Irrigators’ Association (PFIA), attributed the price drop to the rice tariffication law, which opened the country to unimpeded importation of cheap rice that has been flooding the local market.

“Farmers will all die soon. We will no longer get out of poverty because of our loans,” Manalo told the Inquirer.

On Feb. 16, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the rice tariffication bill despite opposition from farmer groups. Under law, an annual subsidy of P10 billion is allotted for the development of the rice industry.

Manalo said that unlike their counterparts in other Southeast Asian countries who only spend P5 to P6 in producing a kilo of palay, Filipino farmers shell out P12 for every kilo.