HOUSE Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district) says that both “immediate and long-term solutions” to increase rice supply are needed to address hunger in non-rice producing communities in the Philippines, particularly the National Capital Region (NCR), where self-reported hunger increased from 10.7 percent in March to 15.7 percent in June 2023, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
“That is 700,000 people more who were hungry, because NCR is very sensitive to higher import prices. They do not produce any rice.”
Salceda made the statement as the DA warned that imported rice is set to become more expensive than retail prices in the coming weeks.
Salceda warned during the briefing of the Department of Agriculture to the House Committee on Food and Agriculture today that “the issue here is hunger” as Salceda called on the DA to provide “immediate and long-term solutions” to the country’s rice supply.
Salceda also asked DA Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian whether he considers “a 12% rice supply deficit as food security” to which Sebastian responded in the negative.
In response to Salceda’s call, the DA said that they are pushing for a “shift in focus of planting season from the wet season to the dry season” which starts in November.
Salceda then told the DA to propose “the government support needed” to make the shift.
Salceda added that this might require “more irrigation facilities as just around 8% of our total land area, out of 18% arable land is actually irrigated.”
Review of rice tariffication needed
Salceda suggested that, “since the six-year period for the mandatory review of the Rice Tariffication Law takes place next year, we may need to review the programs under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).”
Salceda also said that “the review is timely,” as Sebastian said that boosting farmer incomes through higher farmgate prices could also incentivize farmers to make the right investments in fertilizers, seeds, machinery and other factors.
Salceda said that he will push for the conduct of the review of RCEF programs by the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM) earlier “since there are obviously areas where we allocated more, such as machinery, but can be adjusted already given emerging needs.”
“The RCEF programs are very supply-side. So, we might even consider shifting the RCEF monies towards a price support for domestic rice produced. That way, the incentive is behavioral. If you produce more, we buy more from you.”
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