Farmers tag 60-day rice import ban superficial, urge repeal of rice liberalization law

BULACAN – The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) asserted that Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 60-day rice import suspension is a mere publicity stunt that fails to address the real cause of the rice crisis: the continued implementation of the Rice Liberalization Law, which has devastated local farmers and agriculture.

“The 60-day rice import ban is just for show. While the public is being made to believe that something is being done for the farmers, the Rice Liberalization Law, one of the root causes of the decline in farmers’ income and the rising price of rice, remains in effect. It must be immediately repealed,” said Danilo Ramos, chairperson of KMP.

Marcos Jr.’s 60-day suspension of rice importation starting this Sept. 1 purportedly intends to protect local farmers from low palay prices caused by unchecked rice imports, but critics argue it’s an ineffective, temporary measure. Marcos has also deferred his decision on the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s proposal to raise import tariffs to help stabilize prices. 

Agriculture group SINAG warned that importers can easily bypass the suspension. The group is pushing for higher tariffs: P35 ($0.63) for ASEAN and P50 ($0.90) for non-ASEAN to genuinely protect local farmers and ensure fair competition.

The Rice Tariffication Law (RA 11203), enacted in 2019, removed import restrictions and allowed private traders to bring in unlimited rice imports with tariffs. However, critics argue it has devastated local rice production, slashed farmgate prices, and made the Philippines overly dependent on imports, leaving farmers vulnerable and food security at risk. The law also weakened the National Food Authority’s role in regulating supply and prices, prompting calls for the restoration of government control to protect local farmers and ensure national food sovereignty.

KMP argues that the move fails to address the root causes of the rice crisis, namely, the long-term decline of local agriculture, the sharp drop in farmgate prices of palay, the widespread losses suffered by hundreds of thousands of farmers, and the monopolistic control of a few importers and rice cartels over supply and pricing.

According to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), six years after the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law, the policy has severely damaged the local rice industry. Palay production has stagnated or declined, with 200,000 hectares of rice land lost since 2018. Farmers’ incomes have dropped by an average of P6,268 ($112.82) per hectare, while retail rice prices have increased by 17 percent. 

The control of rice supply and pricing has increasingly fallen into the hands of a few powerful traders as the National Food Authority (NFA) has been stripped of its capacity to intervene, KMP said. Importation has doubled even as the number of importers shrank, favoring a handful of large corporations. Food insecurity has worsened, with the country’s rice import dependency rising from 14 percent in 2018 to 23 percent, while the local rice milling industry suffered a major blow, losing 6,000 mills and affecting over 1,000 barangays nationwide.

From 2019 to 2024, over P133 billion ($2.39 billion) in tariffs were collected from imported rice, but farmer groups like the KMP claimed that these funds did not truly benefit local rice producers. Instead, KMP alleged that the revenue was lost to corruption, lump-sum allocations, and mounting debt, including a proposed $1-billion loan from the World Bank. 

The KMP is urgently calling for the repeal of the Rice Liberalization Law (RLL), the restoration of the regulatory powers of the NFA, an end to foreign control over agricultural policies, and the passage of the Rice Industry Development Act (RIDA) and the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB). KMP also emphasized the need to uphold genuine land reform and national industrialization as the foundation for food sovereignty.

The Rice Industry Development Act (RIDA) and Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) are legislative proposals that seek to address the root causes of the rice crisis and agricultural stagnation in the Philippines. RIDA aims to revive the local rice industry through state-led investment in irrigation, post-harvest facilities, subsidies, and stronger government regulation via the NFA, while promoting food self-sufficiency and shielding rice lands from conversion. Complementing this, GARB pushes for free land distribution to farmers, ending land monopolies and ensuring tenurial security, essential foundations for genuine rural development. 

“The unrelenting rice crisis is a crisis of a rotten system. There can be no real solution from a government that enriches businessmen and foreign interests while starving its own farmers and people,” KMP concluded. (RVO)

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