Officials from the Department of Agriculture have admitted that achieving President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s promise to lower the price of rice is proving to be difficult.

During a hearing of the House committee on appropriations for the DA’s proposed budget for 2024, legislators focused on the president’s 2022 campaign promise to reduce the price of rice to 20 pesos per kilo.

President Marcos, who also serves as Agriculture Secretary, was absent from the hearing.

“The market will dictate the price” – USec Sebastian

Rep. Mujiv Hataman of Basilan questioned DA officials about the feasibility of achieving P20 per kilogram rice prices once the nation achieves the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program’s goal of 97.5 percent rice self-sufficiency in five years.

However, DA Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian stated that lowering the cost of rice to P20 per kilo would be difficult to accomplish, even if the country becomes self-sufficient in the staple food. He emphasized that the market would determine the price.

“It depends on the market, how it will play. If we are able to, for example Mr. Chair, improve our value chain and reduce the costing like the post-harvest cost… then we can also reduce the cost of production … not P20 but at least we can maintain a lower price that is affordable. I think our objective should be affordability for our population,” Sebastian said.

Currently, the price of rice has reached up to P56 per kilo.

USec Sebastian also acknowledged that achieving P20 per kilogram might be challenging, particularly after Hataman informed him that affordability is “relative.”

Sebastian added that the P20 per kilo rice price is the DA’s “aspiration.”

“As the President has also rightly expressed, Mr. Chair, we would like to make sure our farmers will benefit from any agricultural development that we will have. We’re to make sure they have a good income. That is our main objective,” he said.

However, Sebastian clarified that while reducing rice prices is part of the roadmap, achieving P20 per kilo is not the immediate target.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman also inquired about the President’s assurance that the country will have sufficient rice by 2030.

“At what amount will the price of rice stabilize, because according to the President, it will stabilize. So at what amount?” Lagman said.

DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban responded that they have “not figured that out” but that “in all probabilities, it is possible” to achieve.

“We are looking at solutions to the problems but not at this point in time,” he added.

Panganiban acknowledged that there have been past instances that “affected the achievement of food security in the country.”

He cited incomplete or insufficient irrigation projects as well as the conversion of rice lands into residential subdivisions.

Panganiban also noted that facilities such as market roads and equipment such as harvesters and threshers are not fully operational.

“So, these problems affected the achievement of food security in the country. And on that basis, we are not in a position to say that we shall be self-sufficient by the end of the Marcos administration,” Panganiban said.

Panganiban continued by saying that prices range from P38 to P50 or P60 and that the Agriculture Department is still seeking solutions to these challenges.

Rep. Lagman expressed disappointment in USec Panganiban’s response, asserting that this campaign promise “could have made the President win” in the elections.

Photo: Joey Salazar