Another promise for farmers, fisherfolk
The controversial Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) will again be overhauled as it has failed to achieve its original intent of stabilizing prices and protecting farmers. Highlighting the law’s adverse effects on the agricultural sector, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture, food, and agrarian reform, last week cited the steep drop in farmgate prices of palay due to the continued influx of imported rice, suspected price manipulation, and warehouse irregularities, as well as the weakened capacity of the National Food Authority to protect both producers and consumers after its powers were removed by the law.
The RTL, or Republic Act No. 11203, liberalized rice imports by replacing quantitative restrictions with tariffs and established the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund to support farmers through mechanization and the provision of seeds, credit, and training. But given how long the legislative process takes to produce results, Pangilinan said he, along with House of Representatives agriculture committee chair Rep. Mark Enverga and agrarian reform panel head Rep. Eleanor Bulut-Begtang, met with President Marcos Jr. to discuss the proposed changes.
Minimum floor price
A favorable result of that meeting, as Pangilinan reported, is that Mr. Marcos promised to issue two executive orders while the legislative amendments are being crafted in Congress. The first will set a minimum floor price for palay purchases by the government under the Sagip Saka Act, and the second will mandate all government agencies to buy directly from farmers and fisherfolk organizations.
The minimum floor price for palay remains a sensitive issue. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said his office was looking at setting it at P17 a kilo. Farmers groups, however, have called for a P20-per-kilo floor price, claiming the production cost used by the Department of Agriculture (DA) in arriving at its figure is outdated.
The second EO to be issued by the President is more promising. RA 11321, commonly referred to as the Sagip Saka Act signed into law on April 17, 2019, seeks to help improve the lives of farmers and fisherfolk by providing them with support, technical and financial assistance, and direct access to government procurement opportunities.
The last is the target of the EO to be issued by the President, that is to mandate all agencies related to food security and food and agricultural product procurement to buy directly from farmers and fisherfolk organizations.
Accredited farmers
“Hospitals, provincial city jails, cafeterias of state universities will coordinate with these organizations to buy agriculture products directly and at the right price,” Pangilinan noted.
The good news is that this is readily enforceable because the government has already approved stand-alone procurement guidelines to fully implement the direct purchase of agricultural and fishery products by national and local government agencies from agriculture stakeholders.
A key problem we see is that while the Sagip Saka Act mandates government agencies to procure agricultural and fishery products, it provides that these purchases must be made directly only from accredited farmers and fisherfolk cooperatives or enterprises. Millions of farmers and fishers are not members of such organizations. The 2022 Census of Agriculture and Fisheries Agricultural Households and Operators conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority said there were around 7.41 million farmers and about 2.19 million individuals engaged in fishing.
As of March 2022, however, only 5.46 million are registered under the national Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture, which serves as a major government requirement in being prioritized to receive various assistance from the DA in the form of cash or farm inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, fuel subsidy vouchers, and crop insurance, among others.
Hundreds of laws
In implementing the EO to be issued by the President, the government also needs to work double time to target these nonregistered farmers and fisherfolk for inclusion.
The government has enacted perhaps hundreds of laws aimed at helping farmers and fishers, yet they remain among the poorest sectors of society. For instance, RA 821, an act aimed at helping small farmers form cooperatives to be able to market their products efficiently; the Magna Carta for Small Farmers, or RA 7607; RA 8435 or the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997, which mandates the DA to develop the agriculture and fisheries sector; and RA 10601, also known as the Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization Law of 2013, was enacted to modernize the agriculture and fisheries sectors.
Yet despite the abundance of laws, farmers and fisherfolk today remain among the poorest sectors of the country. The enactment of laws is not enough. The government needs to do better at implementation. It can hopefully start now by showing tangible results with the twin EOs to be issued by the President.
