Palay farmgate prices continue to decline and are expected to drop even more when harvest peaks in late September and October.

This was the assessment made by the Department of Agriculture's Rice Industry Development that saw palay farm gate prices from a high of P22 to P25 a kilo in June and July, the onset of harvest in Nueva Ecija in early September, and continue to drop at P17 and P18 a kilo last week.

DA-RID said a field survey done by the National Rice Program in several towns of Nueva Ecija this week showed palay farm gate prices continue to drop, which farmers said might drop to as low as P16 or P15 when harvest for the wet season crops begins to peak by mid- September.

Farmers are also appealing to the President to intervene, so that they would get better rates for their produce and not be at the mercy of prices to be dictated by the traders, agents and millers.

It added that farmers lamented that their production had been substantially decimated by the recent prolonged downpour caused by the typhoon and habagat, resulting in many of their standing crops bending to the soil, making them irrecoverable.

"But for some who harvested earlier, they were able to benefit from the high prices from their palay and did not suffer losses, unlike the majority who would be harvesting in the coming weeks," the NRP reported.

An inspection done by the DA-NRP also showed that heavily affected by the prolonged downpour from habagat and typhoons, were the farms of Licab, Quezon, Zaragoza and other areas.

The field survey revealed that most of the Nueva Ecija farmers interviewed said they were saddened by the abrupt decline in palay farmgate prices from about P22 to P24 in late August to just P16 to P17 a kilo now, they said.

Aside from the rains, another factor that led to the sudden decline in palay prices was the imposition of price cap on 5 September.

"We're afraid that traders, millers, and other merchants would buy our harvest at a uniform lower price," they said.

Many farms in Nueva Ecija are beginning to harvest their wet season crop, which is expected to peak by mid-September until late October.

The National Food Authority does not buy fresh palay, but only those with a moisture content of 14.1 to 30 percent, clean and dry, which costs P19 per kilo.

During the field interview, the farmers, a seed grower and members of a farm coop in Aliaga, Quezon and Licab, all in Nueva Ecija, also suggested that if rice vendors of Metro Manila are to be given subsidy for what they claim as "losses" for selling stocks they bought at high prices, but they must sell at P41 for regular milled and P45 for well milled, then they too should be given subsidies for the losses they have suffered from the reduced price ceilings of rice which caused palay prices to slides down.

They also appealed to the President to order NFA to buy fresh (wet) palay at the farmgate level, which traders have been leaving them with no choice but to sell wet palay at a loss.

With the recent prolonged rains from habagat, farmer Servillano Yabut, also director of the Farmer Business Service Cooperative of Aliaga said he expects to harvest only 60 to 70 percent of their planted palay with an average yield of 130 cavans per hectare and rice recovery of only 65 cavans.

Five years ago, Marcelo Tudayan of Aliaga sold his palay at the farm gate price for as high as P22.50 but now he said he would be lucky to sell at P17 a kilo. He explained that back then, the cost of inputs was low which enabled them to still earn, but now that the cost of all inputs—principally fertilizers—has soared, he does not expect to earn any.

The cost of petrochemical fertilizers soared with the global price hikes for oil as a result of the 2-year old war in Ukraine and the worldwide disruptions in the supply chain because of the pandemic.

During the dry season crop of 2023, the top five production areas of Nueva Ecija: Guimba with 124,943.56 metric tons; San Antonio with 112, 126.97 mt; Munoz with 85,947.21 mt; Talavera with 72,681.60 and Gapan with 67,265.69 mt.

But in terms of yield per hectare during the dry season crop, the top five LGUs were: Munoz with 9.5 mt; San Antonio, 9.2 mt; Sto. Domingo, 8.89 mt; Jaen, 8.55 mt and Sta. Rosa, 8.44 mt.

These LGUs have yet to start the wet season harvest by mid-September to October, but a few harvests have already been made at Aliaga and parts of Quezon and Licab.

The Masagana Rice Industry Development Program aims to raise farmers' income through better-yielding seed varieties (both inbred and hybrid) and increase their savings from production costs through a cocktail of fertilizers (organic, biofertilizer, and chemical nutrients) and linking them with potential buyers and credit facilities.