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THE government’s P20-per-kilogram rice program has enough funding until President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. steps down in June 2028, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Sunday.

Known as Benteng Bigas Meron Na!, the subsidized rice program could reach as many as 60 million Filipinos by the end of the Marcos administration, with much of the additional funding released by the president still unused, the DA said.

“It’s really helping a lot of people,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said, citing the program’s impact on households struggling with high food costs.

The DA, however, ruled out requiring the broader market to sell rice at P20/kg, saying such a move could hurt farmers because current production costs leave little room for further price reductions.

Tiu Laurel said Marcos’ 2022 campaign pledge to bring rice prices down to P20/kg was made when fertilizer and fuel costs were considerably lower.

Since then, the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East have driven up fuel, fertilizer and shipping costs, making a nationwide P20/kg retail price difficult to achieve without substantial government subsidies.

The current program is for targeted beneficiaries while seeking to protect farmers from artificially low market prices.

The DA said the program could also strengthen the role of the National Food Authority ( A) in the rice market by allowing it to purchase more palay from local farmers, as faster inventory turnover creates additional storage capacity.

Expanded A procurement could provide farmers with a more reliable market for their produce while replenishing stocks used for the subsidized rice program.

The DA said the longer-term challenge is to reduce production and distribution costs enough to bring down rice prices across the market without undermining farmers’ incomes.

Improving farm productivity, supply chains and the efficient use of agricultural inputs will be critical to achieving lower rice prices sustainably, the agency said.

Source : msn