THE National Irrigation Administration (NIA) will start selling rice for P29 per kilo in August as it expects to yield some 100 million kilograms of the staple grain from big contract farming projects.
NIA administrator Eduardo Guillen said 10-kilogram bags of rice at P29 per kilo will be Kadiwa stores.
“Mayroon tayong targeted areas like Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao,” he said. “We have around 100 million kilos of rice na projected na ma-produce natin by August.”
Guillen also said that irrigators have started to sell rice for as low as P20/kilo at NIA’s Kadiwa outlets “as a way of thanking President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the many assistance his administration has given to farmers to increase their production.”
“Inisyatibo po ito ng ating mga irrigators association. Sabi nila noong kinakausap ko sila, bilang pasasalamat nila [ito] sa napakarami nilang tinatanggap na mga ayuda sa gobyerno natin. Nag-ooffer din sila ng P20 na bigas,” he said.
“Sabi ko, ‘Hindi ba kayo lugi niyan?’ ‘Ah, hindi’ sabi nila kasi, again, ang input cost, simple math lang po ‘no – ang cost ng inbred, ‘pag nagtanim ka ng inbred is P30,000; ang yield nila is P5,000,” he pointed out.
If NFA’s 63-percent formula is used, there will be around P10 peso production cost for every kilo of rice and farmers can earn 100-percent profit, even doubling the cost, said the NIA chief. (GP)
