President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has met his economic team and officials of the National Food Authority (NFA) on Tuesday to discuss ways to ensure the country has an adequate supply of rice.
“President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. meets with his economic team and the National Food Authority officials to plan the administration’s steps on maintaining sufficient rice buffer stock in the country,” the Office of the President reported on its official Facebook page.
Both the NFA Council and the Department of Agriculture (DA) are headed by the Chief Executive.
Marcos issued a directive to increase output of rice, corn, vegetables, pork, and chicken in his first month in office as President and Secretary of Agriculture. Additionally, he demanded that the law governing rice tariffs and their impact on regional farmers be reviewed.
According to Marcos, the proposed P5.268 trillion national budget for 2023 has boosted the allowance for buffer stock capacity from 9 days to 15 days. The government has allotted P12 billion for the NFA’s Buffer Stocking Program to buy 631.579 million metric tons (MT) of palay from local farmers.
“There is also an allocation of P670 billion for the purchase of high-quality rice and corn seeds for seed buffer stocking under the DA,” Marcos stressed in his budget message.
He said doing this will guarantee that there is a sufficient supply of these seeds to be used in case of emergencies or disasters that impact the production of corn and rice.
The Agriculture department earlier said its National Rice Program continues to provide support to raise farm production and income as Filipino rice farmers continue to struggle due to the high cost of agricultural inputs. The program plans to supply high-quality inbred and hybrid seeds in 15 regions, which will total 1.8 million hectares, during the wet and dry cropping seasons this year.
The agency is also looking into a “Masagana 150” program, which aims to produce 150 cavans of harvest every hectare. The late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s Masagana 99 program gave farmers access to high-yield rice varieties through loans in order to boost rice production. The scheme was abandoned because it increased farmers’ debt levels.
Photo Credit: Facebook/BongbongMarcos