Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga, a member of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) party, came up with the proposal after rice farmers complained of low palay prices due to massive rice importation by the government.

Barzaga said it would be better if the government will buy local yields from farmers instead of purchasing rice abroad and selling it at a loss to the public through the National Food Authority (NFA).

He said his policy proposal would also "encourage our farmers to cultivate more rice lands, not to mention its beneficial effect to the economy."

Last Friday, Herculano Co, president of the Philippine Confederation of Grains Associations (Philcongrains), said the price of palay would not increase significantly since the NFA continues to import rice, and the situation will worsen for farmers as the traditionally bigger crop yield this year starts.

Based on a recent consultation with the farmers in his district, Congressman Barzaga said he learned that the buying price of palay by private traders is now only R10 per kilo for wet and an additional R3 for dry. "Farmers in my district have informed me that the harvest season for palay has just begun. The bad news is that the market price for palay is very low," Barzaga said.

He said the farmers complained that with these prevailing market prices, "they would not be able to recover their cost of production." This leads Barzaga to ask Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap on what he is doing to address the concerns of the rice farmers. "Does Secretary Yap have any concrete plan to address this problem?"

The increase in rice production outlay was due mainly to rising cost of oil and farm inputs, particularly fertilizer.

Farm group sees lowering of prices, loss of farmers’ income

The peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas – Southern Mindanao warned farmers yesterday about the looming decreased buying price of palay as rice stocks of the National Food Authority (NFA) will reportedly rise due to an incoming 400,000 metric tons of imported rice in the last part of the year.

This phenomenon is expected to result in income loss of billions of pesos for local farmers and millions of hungry mouths.

"If the prices of palay will further go down, amidst the heavy inflation, farmers are going to experience the worst pestilence in their economic life in the coming months. And we have no one to blame but this government which has become addicted to rice importation rather than supporting its local farmers," Tony Salubre, acting spokesperson of the peasant group, said.

Salubre said that with the trend of decreasing palay costs, only the usurers, land owners, big traders, and the cartels are ensured of good income while local farmers are deprived not only of the capacity to purchase and reinvest in farming but also to eat and live.

Salubre lashed at President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s target of rice self sufficiency by 2013, saying this is just another daydream fed by Mrs. Arroyo to the outraged public.

Salubre said the real and only solution to uplifting the plight of farmers is to stop rice importation, stop land and crop conversion, disband rice cartels and usury, and implement genuine land reform.