Central Luzon farmers seek help as palay price falls

FARMERS’ VOICE Farmers in Central Luzon stage a protest in Nueva Ecija to call the government’s attention to their plight. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija, Philippines — About 100 farmers in Central Luzon staged protest actions here to call on the government to repeal the rice liberalization law (Republic Act No. 11203) that they blamed for the low buying price of palay (unhusked rice).

The protesters, who belonged to the farmers’ coalition Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL), camped out at the National Food Authority (NFA) regional office here on Tuesday before marching to the public market the following day.

They said the average farm gate price of palay in Nueva Ecija province remained at P11 to P12 per kilogram due to the influx of imported grains in the market. (See related story in Business, Page B4.)

Nueva Ecija is one of the major rice-producing provinces in the country.

Ignacio Ortiz, chair of AMGL-Nueva Ecija, said the downtrend in the palay prices had buried farmers in debt and led to their hunger.

He said the NFA should buy rice directly from farmers at P20 per kg to help them cope with the rising production cost.

In Tarlac and Pampanga provinces, the buying palay price has dropped to P10 a kg.

Mechanization

Farmers also deplored the government’s farm mechanization program, which, they said, was not aligned with their needs.

“[Farm] mechanization is useless if we will lose our farmlands,” Ortiz said, adding that they have been pushing for agricultural reforms that will benefit landless farmers.

AMGL members also held protest rallies in front of the offices of the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in the Science City of Muñoz.

PhilMech is in charge of developing farm machines for agriculture mechanization while PhilRice is the country’s prime agency for rice research.

Both offices are tasked with providing skills training to farmers with the implementation of the P10-billion rice competitiveness enhancement fund. —Armand Galang