Farmers are seeking a Senate probe on the rising cost of fertilizer despite the supposed government interventions to bring down farm inputs in the country through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

In a statement, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) urged lawmakers to probe the steadily rising fertilizer prices burdening rice farmers.

Furthermore, KMP Leader Rafael Mariano said the Department of Agriculture (DA) should explain to Congress where the P10-billion RCEF is going and why it is not helping bring down the cost of farm inputs in the country.

As part of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), which liberalized rice importation in the Philippines, RCEF is where the tariff collected from rice imports will be deposited. RCEF is also supposed to be injected with P10-billion sure funding annually from 2019 to 2024.

“RCEF should be able to help rice farmers. The problem is that RCEF does not give subsidy for farm inputs and fertilizer,” Mariano, who was a former Agrarian Reform Secretary, said.

Since May this year, fertilizer prices have constantly increased, further burdening rice farmers who are shouldering the entire cost of production.

According to the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA), the average price of fertilizer imported by the country was at $500 per metric ton (MT) as of July, which is higher than the $276 per MT average price registered from January to May this year.

On average, fertilizer prices have increased by as much as 40.5 percent on an annual basis depending on the grade.

In the last week of July, the average price of granular urea rose by 40.5 percent to P1,393.32 per 50-kilogram bag from P991.45 per 50-kilogram bag in the same period last year.

Based on price monitoring of KMP chapters in the provinces, the price of 50-kilogram bag of urea fertilizer (Triple 14) in Tarlac jumped from P1,100 in July to P1,500 as of this month. In Nueva Ecija, the price of Swire 46-0-0 brand went up from P970 to P1,200 per 50-kilo bag in the span of a month, while Triple 14 became costlier from P1,250 to P1,500 per 50-kilo bag.

In Isabela, farmers observed that the price of Triple 14 went up from P1,100 in July to P1,350 to P1,400 as of this month.

“While the FPA gave assurance that the country has sufficient inventory stocks of fertilizer that can last until the next cropping season or almost 300,000 metric tons MT as of June 21, 2021, there is a need to probe why the retail price of fertilizer is constantly increasing,” KMP said.

For his part, KMP Chairperson Danilo Ramos said rising fertilizer prices will affect domestic rice production, the livelihood of rice farmers, and the country’s rice productivity and self-sufficiency.

According to the national peasant women federation AMIHAN, additional fertilizer costs will trim down a farmer’s profit to P198 from P302 a day, which could go even lower with the expected decline in palay prices during the lean months of September and October.