When I woke up at 3 a.m. today, I again asked myself the very same question which has haunted me since I was a young boy growing up in the farm: Why are the farmers so helpless in the face of fluctuating prices of their produce?
Like, the rice farmers of Luzon now are reeling from the effects of the flooding of imported rice which pushed down the farm gate price of paddy rice to about P14 per kilo and even as low as P12 in some areas.
Or the Coconut farmers who are suffering from the very low prices of copra because of the glut of vegetable oil in the world market.
Take the case of the rice farmers of Luzon.
While the farm gate price has dropped to as low as P14, the price of local rice in the market is still between P38 to P40 per kilo.
The rule of thumb in the rice industry is that the price of rice is double the farm gate price of palay, meaning if the buying price of palay now is only P14 per kilo, the selling price of rice in the market should only be P28 per kilo.
This means that the traders are making an extra P10 per kilo now from the paddy rice bought from the farmers at P14 per kilo.
The earnings do not include the by products like rice bran, “tiki-tiki” and even the rice hull which now has a commercial value.
The answer to that question is what we have been trying to do in the Department of Agriculture since I assumed office three years ago – lift the farmer and even the fisherman from the status of a raw material producer to a processor and marketer of his produce.
We did this by starting the TienDA Farmers’ and Fishermen’s Outlets all over Metro Manila where we encouraged farmers and fishermen to bring their products to the market and sell these directly to consumers.
The rice farmer must be in full control of the whole value chain – from planting to harvesting to milling and the marketing of his produce.
When we were in Alangalang, Leyte three weeks ago to inaugurate a modern rice processing complex worth P1.7-B, President Rody Duterte publicly declared that there should be more of that rice processing complex in other parts of the country.
He is right. The farmers should own these rice processing complexes so that they will no longer be at the mercy of the traders who control the farm gate prices and they will benefit from the whole value chain.
This morning, I sent a message to a rice farmer-leader in Nueva Ecija, one of those distraught farmers because of my impending departure from the Agriculture Department for a new assignment from the President.
I asked him to lead the organisation of the different farmers groups so that I could link them up with financing institutions for them to acquire or establish a modern rice processing facility somewhere in Central Luzon.
When they are able to do that, I will again link them up with Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso of Manila who has publicly announced that he would revive the Kadiwa Stores in his city.
Those Kadiwa Stores to be opened by Mayor Isko could be the outlets of the freshly-milled rice from the farmers of Central Luzon which could be sold at lower prices.
I will work on this project this week and will pursue this even if I will no longer be in the Agriculture Department.
My love for my fellow farmers and my desire to help them will continue to burn wherever I will be.
Yesterday, a persistent reporter asked me whether my impending reassignment to the Mindanao Development Authority would affect my work as Secretary of Agriculture.
I replied: “I don’t even think about it. When the President says I move to my new assignment, I will obey. But until then, I will continue working as if there is no tomorrow.”
(Photos downloaded from public websites and provided by Chen Yi Agriventures.)
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