By Manny Piñol
Even as a young farm boy I already realized how grains traders exploited rice and corn farmers by manipulating the buying price of these two very important seasonal commodities.
At peak harvest season of both rice and corn, the traders would suddenly announce that their warehouses are already full and that they have to “stop buying.”
The poor farmer has to literally beg for the trader’s kindness to buy his product even at a low price and that is simply because he could not keep his corn in his farmhouse for over one month.
Keeping the corn in an open storage area will invite a weevil attack and the whole produce could be damaged in just a period of two weeks.
So even at a very low price, the farmer is forced to sell his corn to the trader.
Look at what’s happening in North Cotabato now that the harvest season of corn is nearing its peak.
The price has dropped from a high of P17 per kilo of corn with a moisture content of 14% to only P11 yesterday.
It could drop further if nothing is done to protect the farmers.
As Agriculture Secretary, I believe it is my duty to protect the interest of the farmers and put an end to this serious injustice perpetrated on the Filipino rice and corn farmers for ages now.
Yesterday, I called up some friends in the private sector whose help I sought in giving relief to the corn farmers of North Cotabato who are already crying because of the drastic drop in corn buying prices.
A huge corporation is willing to absorb at thousands of metric tons a month starting immediately at a price which is definitely better than the cruel P11 per kilo being offered by the local traders.
Starting next week, the buying operations for corn with 14% moisture content will start in several buying stations all over the province.
This effort is expected to stabilize the price of corn not only in North Cotabato but also in Central Mindanao today.
But I will not stop at this because I know that when I will no longer be Secretary of Agriculture, the same problem could come back and haunt the farmers again.
I will now make it my advocacy to invite rich friends to invest in grains silos to be established in key production areas not only of corn but also of rice.
The grains silos could effectively keep the grains in good condition even up to a period of one year.
The grains silos would serve as a depository of the farmer’s produce where he could “keep” his corn or rice and get a partial payment based on the current market price.
When the price would go up after the peak harvest season, the farmer could go back to the silo management and finally “sell” his produce based on the prevailing market price.
After paying the storage fees, he would get the difference between the partial payment and the final purchase price.
Say the price of corn at peak harvest would drop from P17 per kilo to only P11 per kilo.
Under this scheme, the farmer could “deposit” his produce in the silos and get P11 per kilo but he could come back later when the price would go up to say P17 and get the difference between P11 and P17 per kilo.
Even if he pays P1 per kilo for the storage fee for a period of not over six months, a farmer who produces 4 metric tons of corn per hectare would get an additional P20,000.
This system would also ensure a steady supply of corn for the end users, especially feed millers, who also have to suffer from the fluctuating price of corn every year.
Most of all, this system will correct the age-old injustice inflicted by unscrupulous traders on poor and helpless rice and corn farmers in the country.
(Photos of Filipino corn farmers and corn grains silos downloaded from Google.)
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