Marcos hoping too see rice prices go down as Christmas draws near

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is hoping that the price of rice will go down in time for the Christmas season.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Marcos was asked what his Christmas gift will be for Filipinos if not rice at P20 per kilo.

"The P20 was really the goal, the dream... We are continuing with the transfer payments that we have began with," Marcos said.

"We are going to widen the scope of the Kadiwa so it is now... the Kadiwa was always conducted at an LGU level, individually. (Now, it is a) national program," Marcos said.

"I'm hoping that we can... it looks like baka naman swertehin tayo (maybe we can get lucky)," he added. 

Marcos said weeks ago that the Philippines was close to achieving the aspiration of lowering the price of rice to P20 per kilo.

But, he said there were still a lot of things which need to be done in order to achieve the goal of lowering the price of rice.

It was Marcos' campaign promise to reduce the price of rice to as low as P20 per kilo.

Marcos said the aspiration hinges on fixing the value chain, or the series of stages involved in producing a product or service that is sold to consumers, with each state adding to the value of the product or service.

He visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna wherein he raised the need to adopt supportive policies to modernize the rice sector as part of a vibrant agri-food industry in the Philippines.

"There are new technologies that address the problems that we are facing, and those technologies are beginning to be disseminated down to the local farmers," Marcos said in a separate message.

"The pandemic and the situation in Ukraine have been a glaring reminder of how fundamental the agricultural sector is and food supply not only in the Philippines but to the entire world," he added.

Marcos said agricultural technologies are being pursued as rice crops face risks from higher fertilizer prices and challenges in water management.

"And as I've said, it gives me hope to see the research that we were doing is headed exactly in those directions that we feel are going to be necessary — that we have to develop further," the President said.

IRRI is an independent, nonprofit, research and educational institute, founded in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations with support from the Philippine government.  It has offices in 17 rice-growing countries in Asia and Africa and employs more than 1,000 staff.

The IRRI is the world’s premier research organization dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger through rice science; improving the health and welfare of rice farmers and consumers and protecting the rice-growing environment for future generations. —NB, GMA Integrated News