THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is tripling the monthly rice purchase limit — to 30 kilograms (kg) from 10 — for beneficiaries of its Program 29 (P29) initiatve.
The program, launched in July 2024, aims to offer high-quality rice at P29/kg to 6.9 million vulnerable households or 35 million Filipinos including senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), solo parents and indigents.
The rice, to be sourced from the National Food Authority's (NFA) buffer stocks, was made available through Kadiwa ng Pangulo centers and stores.
At the Trabaho at Serbisyong Pangkalususugan event on Friday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. encouraged beneficiaries to avail of the new rice purchase limit, which took effect nationwide immediately.
The DA, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), said an average Filipino consumer who has P100 spends about P9 on rice. The amount doubles to P18 per P100 among low-income families.
Aside from the P29 program, the government is also implementing the Rice-for-All (RFA) program, under which rice is sold at P43/kg for 5-percent broken; P35/kg for 25-percent broken; and P33/kg for 100-percent broken.
Broken rice consists of fragments of the grain that were broken during drying, transport, or milling. It is, like brown rice, as nutritious as unbroken rice if the germ and bran are intact.
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