By Madelaine B. Miraflor With rice tariffication, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said it's going to be a critical year for the local rice sector, which will now have to secure a foothold in a market that will soon be flooded with imported stocks.   Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol " getting our acts together," Piñol said as he met with all the regional directors of the Department of Agriculture (DA) as well as the officials of the National Food Authority (NFA) and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) on Friday. The purpose of the meeting is to prepare a well-coordinated plan for the first harvest season of 2019. The meeting, the DA chief said, is "very critical" because of NFA's new role post-tariffication. The rice tariffication bill, which was ratified by both chambers of Congress in November last year, is set to be transmitted to Malacañang for the President’s signature. The bill amends the two-decade-old Republic Act (RA) No. 8178, otherwise known as the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996, and replaces the quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice imports with tariff. "The NFA, which was placed back under the DA on orders of President Rodrigo Duterte four months ago, will now be supported by the DA in its procurement operations to ensure that it will be able to buy enough stocks for the buffer stocks to stabilize supply and at the same time protect farmers from exploitation by rice traders," Piñol said. "With the lifting of the QR, which would open the Philippine market to supplies of rice other countries, Filipino rice farmers face the threat of a lower buying price for their produce," he added. Despite the incentives added to the local buying price of palay, he took note of the problems confronting farmers in dealing with NFA, which includes the lack of drying facilities and the delayed payments. Farmers have also been dependent to community traders when it comes to financing their fertilizers, farm inputs, and even personal needs. Piñol, however, has interventions in mind. He said the government must open a credit program for farmers who will sell their produce to the NFA. The loan will have 2 percent interest and payable upon harvest. He also proposed the establishment by DA of drying facilities in NFA buying stations, which farmers could use for free, as well as a tie-up between the DA and NFA for the use of the Rice Processing Facilities established by the DA in about 200 areas all over the country. NFA was also told to be more aggressive on local palay procurement. Piñol said this could be done by deploying mobile procurement trucks to pick up farmers' produce at the farm level with the DA providing the NFA information on the schedule of harvest. To recall, the state-run grains agency has an allocation of P7 billion for paddy rice procurement for the first harvest season which could be rolled over to the second harvest season this year. PhilRice will also be asked to coordinate with the DA by identifying the rice seed varieties adaptable to a specific area, focusing on at least three high-yielding rice varieties. Under the new rice importation regime, legitimate rice traders can now import rice sans NFA permits, provided they secure a sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance from the Department of Agriculture's (DA) Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and pay the appropriate tariff to the Bureau of Customs. National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), however, noted that NFA can still sell cheap rice but to very targeted markets. It will also have to focus on ensuring sufficient buffer stocks to address emergency situations.