AGRICULTURE Secretary Emmanuel Piñol announced that a proposed tri-partite agreement between the Department of Agriculture (DA), Provincial Government of Negros Occidental, and a farmers’ cooperative will make the province the first area in the country to implement the Bigas ng Masa Program (Rice for the Masses program).
The partnership will result to the selling of commercial rice at less than P40 per kilogram.
Piñol, in his Facebook post, said that during his visit to the Rice Processing Complex (RPC) in Bago City over the weekend, he told Provincial Agriculturist Japhet Masculino of his plan to maximize the utilization of the facility.
Piñol recalled that the establishment of RPC was funded by the DA during the previous administration in the amount of P25 million with a provincial counterpart of P35 million in 2012.
After its ceremonial opening by then President Benigno Aquino III, the facility was left idle for five years, he said.
“It was only (utilized) when I issued a warning that the DA, under President Rodrigo Duterte, will take back the RPC if it is not made useful and operational,” Piñol said. “Today, it is being operated by the Provincial Government as an economic enterprise.”
The Agriculture chief proposed that the operation of RPC will be turned over to a farmers’ cooperative.
The cooperative will be given P20 million in loan by the DA through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) so they could provide their members production loans under the Production Loan Easy Access (Plea) program.
Piñol said another P20 million will be loaned out to the cooperative by the ACPC to be used in buying the produce of its members.
The produce will be milled in the RPC and the rice will be sold among Bigas ng Masa outlets to be established by the Provincial Government in all its towns and other population centers, he added.
Masculino has yet to draft the memorandum of agreement to be submitted to Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., which will be up for approval of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
“The Bigas ng Masa program is part of the DA TienDA advocacy which aims to link farmers directly with consumers,” Piñol said, adding that “this strategy is expected to increase farmers’ income and bring down the price of food commodities in the market.”