PROVINCIAL Agriculture Office head Japhet Masculino revealed Friday, December 20, some challenges in buying palay from rice farmers amid the low price of the country’s staple food.
Masculino said the Province has already bought 180 sacks of palay at P15 per kilo and that there is still available funds for the palay buying.
However, Masculino revealed that some of the challenges in the palay buying is the lack of time these holiday season. But he said that after the holiday season the buying will resume.
Some of the challenges Masculino said is the coordination between the OPA, CAPGEM and the inspection team because sometimes the inspectors have some jobs to attend to aside from going with the buying team.
That’s why Masculino said that they are studying to adopt the way that the Iloilo Provincial Government conducts the palay buying where farmers’ cooperatives directly do the buying without going through the bidding process and inspection.
“Ultimately we have the capacity. Farmers can contact our office if they want to sell their palay,” Masculino said.
Meanwhile Masculino said that around 40,000 farmers in the Province could avail the P5,000 subsidy given by the government to the rice farmers.
The budget is part of the P13 billion tariffs collected by the government from imported rice under the Rice Tariffication Law.
That’s why we are urging the rice farmers to register with the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) where all government interventions for rice farmers are based.
The government has decided to distribute P5,000 in cash assistance to rice farmers who continue to reel from plummeting palay prices following the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar made the announcement during the sidelines of the India-Philippines trade consultation event adding that they were hoping to give out the subsidies supposedly before Christmas.