By Manny Piñol
The government’s plan to provide 20 kilos of rice every month to poor families who are members of the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) is an admirable move but it could prove to be a logistical nightmare.
I have raised the question on the system to be used in making sure that the 20 kilos would be distributed to families living in the remotest areas of the country.
For example, how do you deliver 20 kilos of rice monthly to a family living in a remote village in the Sierra Madre?
It was because of this that in the last Cabinet meeting, I broached to Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco the idea of the rice ration for the 4Ps beneficiaries to be supplied by Filipino rice farmers instead of importing it.
The idea is to allow the local government units to produce the rice requirements for the 4Ps beneficiaries, the poorest of the poor and the senior citizens by engaging their rice farmers in a “contract farming” scheme.
Under a concept which I call LGU Corporate Farming, towns or provinces will finance the seeds and fertilizer requirements of their rice farmers who in turn will deliver to the LGU their produce to be bought at government support price of P17 per kilo of dry palay or P13 per kilo fresh.
The LGUs, through an economic enterprise body which I suggest would be called “Bigasan ng Masa,” will process the palay using facilities to be provided by the Dept. of Agriculture (DA) and sell the rice in outlets in every village in the town or province.
This scheme would allow the 4Ps beneficiaries to withdraw their rice rations of 20 kilos a month by just showing their ID cards to the “Bigasan ng Masa” outlets.
The LGUs in turn will be paid by the Dept. of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the rice they have supplied to the 4Ps beneficiaries.
In addition, the LGUs will be able to offer to the poorest of the poor families in their communities freshly-milled and low-priced rice produced by their own farmers.
What would be the benefits of this concept of the LGU Corporate Farms?
1. Rice farmers will now be supported by their LGUs with good rice seeds and sufficient fertilizers thus ensuring increased productivity.
In the Rice Forum which DA held in the University of the Phils. in Los Baños on July 6, six outstanding rice farmers said they were able to produce 8, 10, 12 and 15 metric tons per hectare per harvest, a lot higher than the national average of 3.9-metric tons, because they used hybrid or certified seeds, sufficient fertilizers and sufficient irrigation water.
2. Rice consumers who could hardly afford the prevailing market price of P42 per kilo could now have access to rice supply which could be priced as low as P35 per kilo through the “Bigasan ng Masa” which would be opened in their communities.
Also, this would ensure that the rice supply available to them are freshly milled, thus more palatable compared to the imported rice.
3. The LGUs, aside from supporting their farmers and providing low-priced fresh rice supply, are also expected to earn modest profits.
In a computation conducted by the Technical Working Group showed that an LGU which would finance farmers covering 5,000 hectares, buying fresh palay at P13 per kilo and selling the milled rice at P35 per kilo, could earn at least P50-million per harvest season.
4. The LGUs would now be empowered to manage their own food production programs and this concept of corporate farming sponsored by local government units could later cover other agricultural and fisheries commodities, thus benefitting farmers and fishermen.
In fact, the LGUs could even initiate the establishment of their own grains silos to provide facilities for their rice and corn farmers.
5. The 4Ps rice rationing program of government will now have an effective distribution system thus ensuring that the assistance of government to the poorest of the poor families would actually reach them.
6. The DA will now be freed from the gargantuan task of providing rice and corn farmers with seeds and fertilizers every year which is not sufficient anyway.
The funds intended for rice and corn seeds and fertilizers could now be utilized in improving the technology of the farmers and in providing processing facilities and implementing a national agricultural mechanization program.
7. The Filipino rice farmers could now compete with rice farmers from Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia who supply the country with low cost rice because of their higher productivity and lower cost of production.
In the end, with higher production per hectare because of the availability of good seeds and fertilizers supplied by the LGU Corporate Farming Concept, the Filipino rice farmers could help the country achieve the long dreamed Rice Self-Sufficiency.
Already, three local government units have signified their interest in becoming the first LGUs to implement the LGU Corporate Farming concept.
Quezon City, an urban city with no agricultural lands intends to establish its corporate rice farm in Mindoro Oriental; Kidapawan City, a rural city in North Cotabato with wide rice farms; and Quirino Province, a small agricultural province with about 20,000-hectares of ricelands are the first LGUs which would like to implement the corporate rice farming concept.
While Quezon City could finance its own corporate farms because it has surplus funds, the other LGUs could actually turn to the Land Bank of the Philippines for financing of their LGU Corporate Farms.
Hopefully, these three pioneering LGUs will show the way and prove that with LGU support, Philippine agricultural could grow by leaps and bounds.
(File photo of rice farmers downloaded from Google.)
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