CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija — The provincial government of Nueva Ecija will begin purchasing palay from local farmers as prices continue to fall to around P10 to P12 per kilo in the towns of Cabiao and San Antonio, threatening farmer livelihoods.

This initiative follows the lifting of the election spending ban and is part of the ongoing Palay Price Support Program under the Provincial Food Council (PFC), which aims to address the steady decline in palay prices across the province.

Governor Aurelio Umali said the purchased palay will be milled into rice and sold to residents at about P20 per kilo through rolling stores deployed across Nueva Ecija. He noted the initiative was first launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the provincial government distributed free rice to households.

The current drop in farmgate prices has been largely attributed to the 2019 Rice Tariffication Law, which allowed the unlimited importation of cheaper foreign rice. As a result, the National Food Authority (NFA) could no longer purchase palay from local farmers at competitive rates, weakening state support for domestic rice production.

To counter this, the provincial government formed the Provincial Food Council to provide direct assistance to farmers and cushion the impact of rice market liberalization.

Governor Umali assured the public that the province has sufficient funds to sustain the program, citing Nueva Ecija’s stable financial position.

Meanwhile, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to ensuring that farmers will not be forced to sell palay at a loss. Under the "Benteng Bigas Meron Na" program, the government will continue buying palay at fair prices, regardless of retail market fluctuations.

In his latest vlog episode BBM Vlog 271: Agrikultura, released Sunday, the president addressed concerns that palay prices might fall in light of the government’s target retail rice price of P20 per kilo.

“Whatever the price of rice may be, the NFA’s buying price for palay from our farmers will not go below that,” Marcos said.

He explained that the NFA will maintain a buying price of P18 per kilo for fresh or wet palay, and P19 to P23 per kilo for dry palay.

“Some people are worried that because rice prices are going down, palay prices will follow. That’s not true,” he said.“The reason traders can bargain down the price of palay is because the farmers don’t have drying facilities. They’re forced to sell immediately at whatever price the trader offers,” Marcos added.

To address this, the administration has deployed rice processing and drying facilities nationwide to give farmers more control over their product.

“That’s why we’re setting up rice processing plants and hundreds of dryers, so the farmer can dry their palay and choose where to sell it,” the president said.