Filipino farmers’ aggregate income increased by as much as P24 billion during the first quarter of 2017 because of the positive impact on farm gate rice prices by President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to defer a proposed rice importation.
According to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, the aggregate income by Filipino rice farmers during the first quarter is estimated at P73.08 billion because the buying price of paddy rice now by traders has gone to as high as P21 per kilo or an increase of between P7 to P9 per kilo from the previous seasons.
The income estimate is based on a net harvest of 3,480,086 metric tons during the first quarter, Secretary Piñol said. The Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute’s Philippine Rice Information System (PRiSM) actually monitored a total harvest of 4,142,960 metric tons of rice during the first quarter of 2017, but the DA factored in a post-harvest loss estimate of 16%.
“Now, that is a P24.38-billion increase in the income of the rice farmers for the First Quarter alone because of President Duterte’s directive to defer rice importation until after the harvest season,” Piñol said.
He said the rise in income of farmers during the first quarter of the year would eventually result in a positive impact on the country’s total gross domestic production.
“With an increased buying power because of greater income, the farmers now will be able to buy new clothes, perhaps a new TV set, a new refrigerator, a new motorcycle, a new pick-up, serve his family with beef, pork and even expensive canned goods, drink cold beer or Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola after a sumptuous meal and perhaps go to the mall to do some shopping,” the DA chief noted.
“All the goods that the financially empowered rice farmers buy are produced by other Filipinos or even imported thus creating a ripple effect on these sectors as well. At the end of it all, a better income for the agriculture and fisheries sector means lower poverty in the countryside which in the long run will lessen the migration of people to the big cities, which in the longer run will help decongest traffic and avoid the construction of more skyways and other infrastructure to address the over-population,” Piñol added.
The DA Secretary reacted to recent reports based on analysis by some groups of economists that had expressed concern that the President’s policy regarding rice importation could result in higher prices.
He expressed concern that there is an effort by unscrupulous businessmen or companies to pressure the government to agree to rice importation during the harvest season to depress buying prices for rice.
Piñol said it was his belief that the same rice traders who manipulate prices so they will buy rice at a low price from farmers are also the same unscrupulous traders or companies that are behind or are involved in the rice importation business.
He noted that in the past years, the importers/traders would bring in imported rice during the harvest season so there could be an over-supply in the domestic market.
“In the past, when rice importation was made at peak harvest season, traders would use this as an excuse to drop the buying price of paddy rice from a high of P20 per kilo to only P14 or even P12. With the recent announcement of President Duterte that rice importation should only be done after the harvest season, the buying price of paddy rice now by traders has gone to as high as P21 per kilo or an increase of between P7 to P9 per kilo from the previous seasons,” Piñol declared. (DA-OSEC)
Reference:
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol
