Group says P29/kilo rice for vulnerable groups not sustainable; DA disagrees

The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) on Saturday said that the government’s initiative of selling aging rice stocks of the National Food Authority (NFA) at P29 per kilo to vulnerable sectors is not sustainable.

Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB, PCAFI president Danilo Fausto said that “NFA cannot afford to sell its stock because it's the rainy season already.”

“When a calamity hits… the NFA might not be able to release its stocks,” Fausto said.

The PCAFI chief said that the initiative dubbed "Bigas 29" could have false impressions that it could be sustainable.

“Unless the gov't will shoulder the losses,” Fausto said.

The Department of Agriculture (DA), however disagrees.

DA Assistant Secretary Genevieve Guevarra insists that the program is sustainable. 

"We are seeing it to be sustainable not only for this year but also for the coming years,” said Guevarra at the the Saturday News Forum. 

She explained that the NFA regularly procures rice for its buffer stocking mandate and that the "Bigas 29" program could be an avenue for the NFA to dispose its aging stocks in the future.

“So we are seeing it to be sustainable not only for this year but also for the coming years,” she said.

On Friday, the DA kicked off the large-scale trial of selling NFA’s aging buffer rice stocks in Kadiwa sites in Metro Manila and Bulacan. 

The P29 per kilo rice is available only to 4Ps beneficiaries, senior citizens, PWDs, and solo parents.

Guevarra said the selling of P29 per kilo of rice is limited to 10 kilos a month per household.

For the eventual full implementation of the P29 per kilo rice for the vulnerable sector, the DA official earlier said the P29 Program will require approximately 69,000 metric tons of rice, to provide 10 kilos of rice per month at P29 per kilo to the targeted 6.9 million vulnerable households. —VAL/KG, GMA Integrated News