Passage of House bill seeking to construct post-harvest facilities pushed

HIGHWAY DRYING Farmers dry their palay along a highway in Bugallon, Pangasinan. Their counterparts in Pampanga are complaining that the price of palay is low. They said unhusked rice is now cheaper than hog feed. (Photo dated September 2019 taken by WILLIE LOMIBAO)

MANILA, Philippines — Davao city first district representative Paolo Duterte is pushing for the passage of a bill seeking to construct post-harvest facilities in palay-producing cities and municipalitiesm nationwide.

The measure filed on March 3 is meant to lower rice prices.

‘Palay’ is unhusked rice, also called rough or paddy rice.

Duterte recommended the building of rice mills and warehouses in legislative districts that have at least one rice-producing town.

“While the government is focused on intervention programs to boost rice production, the impact of these initiatives will significantly be lessened if rice-producing areas lack the facilities they badly need to reduce post-production losses,” the lawmaker said in a statement.

He cited a study by Department of Agriculture.

Duterte explained post-harvest losses among farm commodities range from 10 to 50 percent of the production output.

He cited a study by Department of Agriculture.

“This means that at least 10 percent to about half of all land, inputs, and labor used to produce rice and other major crops go to waste,” he estimated.

The initial implementation of the program costs P1 billion.

Duterte believes the passage of the measure will encourage the private sector to invest in modern storage systems and technologies that will improve the operations in post-harvest facilities.

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