The National Food Authority’s power to buy milled rice and corn is an integral part of amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), and the Department of Agriculture is pushing Congress to return this mandate to ensure sustainability of supply of these local food staples.
In a statement yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said that empowering the NFA to buy rice milled through government-funded Rice Processing Systems will provide market assurance for cooperative members throughout the country.
“We must make these multi-million-peso facilities work for the farmers they were meant to serve,” he declared.
DA reiterated that such call is on top of the appeal to also allow the NFA to purchase corn supply from local farmers and cooperatives.
“Corn is not just a rice substitute in the Visayas and Mindanao, it is the backbone of the country’s feed production for our poultry and livestock sectors,” Tiu Laurel explained.
DA also expressed that based on National Corn Program data, yellow corn accounts for 46 percent of feed used in livestock and 62 percent in poultry, but only 2.5 million hectares of land are planted to corn, supporting over 1.1 million Filipino farmers.
The agency added that gross value added of corn in 2024 has reached P116.29 billion which is second only to rice but ahead of coconut and sugar, while livestock and poultry were valued at P319.48 billion and P142.06 billion, respectively.
Meanwhile, Roger Navarro, DA Undersecretary for Operations and Agri-Fisheries Mechanization, emphasized that the NFA’s procurement of palay and potentially corn, is vital during peak harvest periods, particularly in the wet season, to guarantee fair prices for farmers.
DA highlighted that these changes are already being pushed under the Rice Industry and Consumer Empowerment Act bill filed by House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
The original version of the RTL approved in 2018, liberalized the country’s rice sector and limited the NFA’s powers to keep the country’s national rice buffer stock for 15 days by buying palay solely from local sources to provide the staple food during emergencies, calamities or a national food emergency declarations as well as to bid out aging stocks.
It mandated tariffs collected from imported rice of at least P10 billion, to be directed to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), designed to help farmers modernize through mechanization, input subsidies, and financial assistance.
The RTL was amended late last year, but only extended RCEF funding until 2031 and tripled its annual budget to P30 billion.
But the NFA is still restricted from importing rice to boost stocks or directly sell to the public.
