The Department of Agriculture (DA) should set in motion a more comprehensive monitoring system of the rice market to know the actual output per province and the real consumption per capita to stave off shortages.

This proposal was advanced not only by rice traders but also by militant farmers, both of whom have been hobbled by unprecedented rice imports that diminished farm gate prices of palay and caused heavy losses to traders, millers and retailers.

Herculano “Joji” Co said the national inventory should be reckoned not only from the stocks of the National Food Authority (NFA) but also from household stocks, those held by farmers and traders themselves and the palay in the possession of millers.

He suggested that millers should have ample supplies of palay for milling when the need arises while retailers must have at least 50 sacks at any one time as reserve when demand zooms.

In this manner, he stressed, there should be room for quick monitoring and hoarding could be avoided.

On the other hand, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) reiterated the willingness of farmers to sell all their stocks to the NFA when it needs rice, with former KMP chairman Rafael Mariano saying when the food crisis hit the country in 2008, they already offered government to buy up all their stocks.

The amount of P50 billion could have done the trick to assuage fears of consumers about dwindling supplies and thus avert panic buying.

However, the offer was not taken, thus the importations.
When the rice crisis erupted, Mariano said the total inventory in the Philippine market was enough to bridge the demand and supply and noted there was enough grain before the next harvest season.

Nonetheless, NFA indulged in an import binge to infuse more stocks in the market and thus discipline the market players.

The net effect of this, Co stressed, was to punish those who bought high and could not sell low while the palay farmgate prices eventually slid to unprofitable levels for farmers.