NFA to stop selling P27 per kilo rice if tariffication bill is passed

Starting March next year, the National Food Authority (NFA) will stop selling the P27 per kilo rice, Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said Tuesday.

According to a report in "Quick Response Team," the cheap NFA rice will be out of the market if the Rice Tariffication law pushes through. The measure limits the NFA's mandate as a buffer stocking agency to ensure enough supply of the staple for 15 days.

The bill also mandates the NFA to buy its buffer stock from the farmers.

By January, at least 500,000 metric tons of imported NFA rice will arrive in the country, but such supply will only last until March 2019.

The Rice Tariffication bill will also provide a yearly P10 billion subsidy to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, of which P5 billion will be for mechanization while P3 billion will be for rice seedlings to help make the local farmers competitive.

The mechanization fund will be spent on tractor, transplanter, harvester, dryer, milling equipment, among others, to cooperatives and or farmers groups, which should further improve the farmers' yield and facilitate the flow of their products to the market. —Llanesca Panti/ LDF, GMA News