Marcos and DA lying, rice and palay prices did not stabilize — farmers – updates from the peasant movement of the Philippines

Rice farmers are attesting that palay (unhusked rice) farm gate prices remain below the National Food Authority’s (NFA) buying price of P19 to P23 per kilo while local rice prices have not yet stabilized contrary to the claim of President and DA Secretary Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Reynaldo Marcos, a farmer from Malolos City, said they cannot do anything if traders are insisting to buy their palay at lower prices than the buying price set by the NFA. “Mga trader ang bumibili sa amin ng palay. Hindi naman kami ang nakakapagtakda ng presyo. Dati kapag mababa ang presyo ng trader, nakakapagbenta pa kami sa NFA pero ngayon hindi na.” NFA ceased buying palay from rice farmers after the Rice Liberalization Law was implemented.

Farmer Graciano Manalad, also from Malolos City, said they stand to bear more losses this harvest season because of the high cost of farm inputs. He said the cost of a sack of triple-14 urea fertilizer is equivalent to three sacks of play. He further said that farmers in their village usually sell harvested palay to traders because they have no drying facilities.

Manalad is a second-generation farmer who lived through Marcos Sr’s Masagana 99 rice program in the 1970s to 1980s. He said Masagana 99 which introduced chemical farm inputs was way too expensive and costly for small farmers.

Farmers Marcos and Manalad said the government must extend full support and assistance to palay farmers.

“Palay and rice prices have not yet stabilized. Palay prices remain low while rice prices in the markets are still expensive and unaffordable for ordinary consumers. The Malacanang-imposed price cap did not help significantly lower rice prices, in fact, we registered a 14-year record-high rice price inflation of 17.9% last September from 8.7% in August,” according to KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos.

Based on KMP’s monitoring, palay prices as of the first week of October which marked the start of the harvest season are as follows:

Albay – P18/kilo
Nueva Ecija – P18-P19/ kilo
Laguna – P19-P20/kilo
Mindoro Occidental – P18/kilo
Palawan – P22/kilo
Negros – P18-P19/ kilo
Iloilo – P16-P17.50/kilo
Zamboanga Sibugay – P20/kilo

KMP earlier demanded an increase for the National Food Authority’s 2024 budget for the national palay procurement program to buy at least 20% of the total local palay production, which is more than the buffer stocking requirement that is sourced by the NFA from local farmers. The group is also pressing for the repeal of RA 11203 or the Rice Liberalization Law. #