Farmers decry the sharp decrease in the buying price of palay citing losses in their farming livelihood as the cost of production has gone up particularly this planting season due to increase in fertilizer prices and other cost of production inputs.

MANILA, Philippines — Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) today urges Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to investigate why the prices of rice remain high and therefore unaffordable, despite claims from various sectors that the tight supply of rice has softened.
Jessica Reyes-Cantos, R1 lead convenor also seeks stronger government action to prosecute unscrupulous traders that will [...]

Militant lawmakers at the House of Representatives today filed a bill that seeks to turn the Philippines into a self-reliant and self-sufficient rice producer in the next three years.
House Bill 3958 or the proposed “Rice Industry Development Act”, authored by Bayan Muna Reps. Satur C. Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño, Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, Gabriela Reps. Liza [...]

The Arroyo government is again playing with words, as if it would make the rice crisis (which has now reached the level of a food crisis) go away. It claims there is no rice crisis but admits to a rice price crisis. There may be no real shortage yet but sharp increases in the price [...]

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) lauds the Department of Agriculture (DA) for acting upon its proposals to post a moratorium on land conversion as a means to strengthen food security in the country.
In a presentation before the delegates of the recently concluded National Food Summit in Clark, Pampanga, Mr. Roberto Amores, [...]

RICE IMPORTS DON’T SPELL CHEAPER PRICES; GOV’T URGED TO STRENGTHEN LOCAL RICE SECTOR INSTEAD
As government continues to turn to importation as remedy for the current rice crisis, this time with the proposal to further cut the powers of NFA and increase private importation, research group IBON reminds the administration that rice imports, based on experience, [...]

Various anti-Arroyo groups will come together in protest once again, but this time, the focus will be the economy.
Groups aligned with the United Opposition (UNO), the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), Edsa 3 Coalition, Laban ng Masa, the Be not Afraid Movement and other Opposition forces will converge at Plaza Miranda in Manila at 4:00 pm [...]

House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo today warned President Macapagal-Arroyo that her government’s failure to effectively address the rice crisis because of her wrong food security policy adds ground to the people’s mounting calls for her ouster.
“The Filipino people are getting fed up and now begin to understand that Ms [...]

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) today called the Arroyo government’s move to lift the 300,000-metric ton (MT) rice import quota for private traders a step in the wrong direction that will aggravate the rice crisis.
The group argued that lifting the quota will not result in cheaper retail prices for consumers because rice imports are in [...]

Flooding the market with imported rice could lower local prices but it could also depress farm gate prices. In effect, the President has imposed a disincentive to rice producers.

“The consumers should not be left at the mercy of the free market. There should be at least some protection from skyrocketing prices during these times of crisis.”

The presence of a rice cartel is only part of the monopoly control of land and capital in Philippine rice production, trade, and marketing and aggravated by neoliberal policies adhered to by the Philippine government.

Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (Kalumaran) scoffed at Malacañang’s efforts to curb the current rice crisis saying that the measures being taken fall short of addressing the root of the issue. “Ang yutang kabilin nahimong yutang plantasyon ug yutang minahan (The ancestral domains of indigenous peoples have become the domain of plantations and [...]

A health alliance against tobacco today urges the Department of Agriculture to help the farmers in the Ilocos region plant alternative crops like rice, following the reported rice shortage facing the country today.
“In the light of the rice crisis, whether real or artificial, we urge our agriculture officials to list as priority task the pouring [...]

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr.
(PDP-Laban) today said he sees no need to suspend the
government’s bio-fuels program so that more
agricultural lands can be devoted to the planting of
rice and other crops.
Pimentel said the government should not backtrack from
developing alternative, renewable sources of energy
that are abundant in the country to further reduce our
dependence on imported [...]

Rice farmers reacted with disdain over the pronouncement of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that relying on food imports is still good economics if the country is still able to earn enough to afford it.
National Rice Farmers Council President Jaime “Ka Jimmy” Tadeo said that, “President Arroyo’s rice policy is crazy. What good would [...]

Independent think-tank IBON Foundation called on the National Food Authority (NFA) to intensify its procurement of local palay rather than importing more rice from abroad in order to address the rice crisis.
In 2006, NFA procured just 73,078 metric tons (MT) from local farmers, or less than 1% of total production of 10 million MT while [...]

Bayan expects the crisis to worsen and oil and rice prices to increase as the government continues to implement the same flawed policies that helped worsen the crisis.