President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday vowed to impose safeguard duties on rice importation to protect the livelihood of local farmers.
Marcos said this in a sit-down dialogue after leading the inauguration of the P500-million Union Water Impounding Dam in Claveria, Cagayan.
‘We know that the lives of our farmers are not easy, and we are giving all the support that we can provide to them,’ he said.
‘We will impose safeguard duties on importation so that imports won’t ruin local prices, because the price of rice here is dictated by imported rice,’ he told farmers.
‘If imported rice is expensive, all prices go up. If imported rice is cheap, all prices go down,’ he explained.
The president also announced the government’s plan to distribute P10,000 each to farmers who suffered losses due to the decline in the buying price of palay (unhusked rice).
He further guaranteed that the National Food Authority has sufficient funds to buy wet and dry palay at higher prices-ranging from P17 to P23 for wet palay and P23 to P30 for dry palay-compared to traders’ offers of P8 to P13.
The government will also put up service canals, rice processing centers, and farm-to-market roads for easier transport of harvests, he said.
Inbound rice shipments this year have declined as of early October amid the government’s temporary import ban, according to data from the Bureau of Plant Industry.
New impounding dam in Cagayan
The Union Water Impounding Dam, located in Barangays Union and Cadcadir, was a collaboration between the National Irrigation Administration and the Department of Public Works and Highways under the convergence program called Kalsada Tungo sa Patubigan Program or ‘Katubigan.’
It’s a major infrastructure project aimed at improving flood control, irrigation, and climate resilience in the province, projected to benefit more than 1,000 farmers in seven barangays.
Designed to support over 1,050 hectares of farmland, the project features slope protection and drainage systems to minimize river siltation and slope erosion and prevent flooding in agricultural areas. /apl