PH to buy rice from Thailand, Vietnam

Manila—The Philippines is expected to buy rice from Vietnam or Thailand to protect its buffer stock for the lean months, the chief of the National Food Authority said on Monday.

Angelito Banayo said the government eyes to purchase 120,000 metric ton of rice to fill the shortfall in the 500,000-MT requirement for 2012.

Under the importation program this year, the NFA will bid out 380,000 metric tons of rice, which will be divided equally between farmers’ cooperatives and commercial rice traders.

On Monday, the NFA bid out 190,000 MT to commercial rice traders. Officials said the balance will be tendered next week for the farmers’ cooperatives who want to import rice.

“After the bidding, then the government will decide on the mode of procurement for the 120,000 MT,” Banayo said.

Late last year, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said the government will not participate in the importation program this year and will leave it in the hands of the private sector.

Banayo said the government has decided to import rice to make sure that it will have enough buffer stock when the lean months starting from July to September kick in.

He noted that the Philippines could buy rice under a government-to-government contract, the same mode of procurement it used for about 220,000 MT of rice last year.

The Philippines, Banayo said, has agreements with Vietnam and Thailand to buy rice at preferential rates.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas (DA-7) is advising farmers in at least five barangays in Bohol to adopt measures to prevent their rice crops from being attacked by rice seed bugs.

The farmers should promote a clean culture or use a variety of rice resistant to rice seed bugs and to avoid putting water in the rice field after the rice have been harvested, said Norberto Ouano, assistant chief of DA-7 regional corporation protection center during a forum yesterday.

Ouano gave the advise after the Agriculture department recently discovered the presence of rice seed bugs in the barangays Anoyon and Danao in Valencia,  Lapsawon in Dimiao, Antipolo in G. Hernandez and Amlod in Batuan, Bohol.

According to the DA-7 report, a rice seed bug attacks the rice grain.

No rice seed bug attacks, however, was reported in Cebu.

Ouano said the bugs hadn’t yet spread in Bohol and they were assessing the affected areas so that they could find the action to take.

“We will study what pesticide to use for the rice seed bugs, said Ouano./With Correspondent Rhea Ruth V. Rosell