P45 rice max SRP may start March 31 – DA

MANILA, Philippines — The maximum suggested retail price (SRP) of P45 per kilo of imported rice will push through on March 31, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said yesterday.

Initially set at P58 per kilo on Jan. 20, the rice max SRP declined to P49 per kilo on March 1.

A lower max SRP is achievable amid the continued decline of rice prices in the world market and a stronger peso, Department of Agriculture (DA) spokesman Arnel de Mesa said.

The farmgate price of palay will not be affected by the reduced rice max SRP, he said.

Meanwhile, De Mesa said implementation of the food security emergency will be boosted by the Commission on Elections’ ruling that the sale of the National Food Authority (NFA)’s rice stocks to local government units (LGUs) is not covered by the election spending ban.

The DA, he said, is hoping that LGUs will be encouraged to buy NFA rice so that warehouses will be freed of stocks in time for local farmers’ harvest.

Only San Juan, Camarines Sur and Navotas withdrew rice from NFA warehouses, De Mesa noted.

“At least 25 LGUs nationwide have transactional request agreements with the NFA,” he said.

The peak harvest for the dry season started this month and will last until April.

Farmers depressed

Depressed palay prices have forced three Nueva Ecija farmers to attempt suicide as traders bought their produce for as low as P15 per kilo, former agriculture secretary Leonardo Montemayor said yesterday.

“I confirmed the veracity of these reports during my meetings with farmers yesterday in the towns of Guimba and Talavera in Nueva Ecija,” Montemayor said.

Some farmers in Nueva Ecija took their lives recently due to the low farmgate price of palay, Magsasaka party-list chairman Argel Joseph Cabatbat said in a separate radio interview.

“They were despondent over their failure to pay their debts due to the extremely low palay prices, pegged at P15 per kilo and below, caused by unlimited importation of cheap rice, especially at this time of harvest,” Montemayor said.

Around 150,000 farmers from Nueva Ecija and other Central Luzon provinces will hold a rally at the Quezon bypass road on Saturday, from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., Montemayor said.

The DA should ask President Marcos to stop rice importation during the ongoing harvest period or impose safeguard duties to discourage imports, he said.

Promote biofertilizer

The DA should use the P2-billion budget allocated by Congress to promote a biofertilizer that has been in the market for 20 years, according to former University of the Philippines president and National Scientist Emil Javier.

At the inauguration of a P300-million biofertilizer plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna on Sunday, Javier said market penetration for the biofertilizer remains a challenge.

Javier is one of the Filipino scientists who developed the biofertilizer at the UP Los Baños.

The current market for the biofertilizer is only less than one percent covering 50,000 to 60,000 hectares, he noted.

“We have seven million hectares. We realized we have to change the business model. We have to rely on the private sector,” he said.

A farmer can save up to P2,500 per hectare by using the biofertilizer, Javier said.

“Based on our estimation, for every hectare of rice and corn, one kilo of Bio N biofertilizer will replace the equivalent two bags of urea,” he said.

“One bag of urea is P1,500 or P3,000 for two bags per hectare. The cost of Bio N is P500, so your net is P2,500. The farmer will save that amount of money because he uses Bio N,” he added.