State think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said in a report that it was not expect the farmgate price drop of palay (unhusked rice) to be “disproportionate.”

On the sidelines of the Development Policy Research Month press conference, PIDS senior fellow Dr. Roehnalo Briones told the Daily Tribune that the government did not anticipate the sharp drop of the farmgate price of palay, although they have already conducted several studies before the implementation of the law.

“We cannot anticipate everything. There are no studies yet about the RTL (Rice Tariffication Law) after the implementation. Initially, we made policy recommendations from our previous studies in favor of the RTL together with safety nets for farmers,” Briones said.

According to him, there was a “minor” issue with the law’s implementation. Such issue, he said, might have contributed to the “unexpected” deterioration of palay prices in certain areas of the country.

“But it’s too early to tell,” Briones argued.

Records from the government showed a continuous downtrend in palay prices across the country this month.

In an advisory issued on Wednesday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the average farm-gate price of palay plunged to P17.62 per kilogram from P17.72 in the earlier week.

However, farmers, especially those from Luzon, are reeling over the severe drop in the price of palay in their areas P8 per kilo — noting that the lower prices were brought by the RTL.

On Tuesday, Nueva Ecija 1st District Representative Estrellita Suansing said lawmakers and rice authorities should personally visit her province to check out that the farmers’ claims were “not a mere exaggeration.”

To mitigate the adverse impact of the deteriorating price of palay and realize the vision of rice-secure Philippines with prosperous farmers, Briones proposed the improvement of rice marketing in the country.

“The problem is that the current marketing system of the rice industry is very fragmented in the Philippines. At the importation side, it seems that only a few importers were first in line to be able to make those big importations and I’m suspecting that they are holding on to their stocks. They are not (yet) releasing it,” Briones said.

“Since the importers are slow in releasing milled rice, farmers should mill the rice themselves and sell it instead of selling palay with low prices. In that way, they could compete with traders,” Briones suggested.

Aside from providing loan assistance to farmers, the government should also look at providing financial assistance to open up more market opportunities and services, Briones noted.

Meanwhile, Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday said it will push for the distribution of rice to families under the government’s conditional cash transfer program to pave the way for farmers to have another source of income.

According to DA chief William Dar, the idea was met with enthusiasm by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the lead agency in the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, one of the government’s poverty alleviation initiatives.