Villar welcomes farmers to training on mechanization and inbred rice seeds production thru the rice competitiVeness enhancement fund financed by tariff on imported rice
Rice is the staple food in the country and Filipinos love to eat rice, so much so, that most find it difficult to eat without it. it is also the source of livelihood of 3.5 million Filipino farmers.
On Feb. 4, Sen. Cynthia Villar — Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Food, led the opening of the training course on rice farm mechanization and inbred rice seeds production at the Villar SIPAG Farm School in Bacoor, Cavite. She said that training the farmers how to mechanize farming practices and to produce inbred seeds will address the need to lower the production cost of growing palay.
“Through this training program, we are preparing our farmers to switch to the modern way of farming and help them to be able to compete against imported rice which will start coming in as a result of the expiration of the Quantitative Restriction (QR) on Rice, as prescribed by the World Trade Organization (WTO),” Villar said.
The training program was conducted in partnership with the Philippine Center for PostHarvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
After the nine-day training program, the 35 participants from Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) are expected to share the acquired knowledge to their respective communities. Rice taRiffication bill
In recent years, prices of rice have been going up — some prices reaching almost P50 or even P70 in some provinces, due to numerous problems and issues including the high inflation rate that hit 6.7 percent in September last year.
To ease the low supply of rice, reduce prices, and help local farmers, Sen. Villar pushed for the passing of Senate Bill No. 1998 – a bill to amend RA 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996 and replace the quantitative restriction on rice imports.
A tariff is the payment laid on imported and exported goods that enter and exit a country’s market. With the passing of the bill, it is hoped that by putting a tariff on imported rice, it will give local farmers a better chance at competing in the local market and for farmers to leave a better life. Presently, farmers only earn an average income of P4,500 per month, whereas the average amount to feed a family of five is at P6,300 per month.
Under the bill, the government will give rice farmers a budget of P10 billion a year for the next six years to make them more competitive. The budget is broke down as follows — P5 billion will be given to PhilMech to provide the 1,100 rice producing towns around the country machineries every year for the next six years; P3 billion will be given to PhilRice to teach the farmers how to produce inbred seeds that were discovered could increase farmer’s harvest production by 50 percent; P1 billion will go to Landbank and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to give farmers low loan credits; an additional P100 million will be given to PhilMech for the training of trainers on mechanization; another P100 million will be given to ATI to help PhilMech and PhilRice train the farmers; and P700 million will go to TESDA for the trainings of the farmers.
Since its approval in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the bill has been marked as urgent by President Duterte’s administration and is awaiting his signature before it could be passed into law.