The campaign promise of president-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. to reduce the price of rice for P20 per kilo is only good as a working goal rather than a realization in the next few years.

Short of saying that it is unlikely to be attained, Agriculture Sec. William Dar cited some of the reasons why it is not achievable so far.

First, he said the production cost for a kilo of palay is currently at P11.50 and should the Russia-Ukraine war continue in the next months, an additional P3 is expected to be added in the cost of producing a kilo of palay.

In the data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority in February last year, the average farm gate price of palay was already at P16.69 per kilogram.

Second, the continuous rise in the prices of chemical fertilizers and oil products will always be a stumbling block and is even expected to worsen if the Russia-Ukraine war would continue.

Local farmers are mostly using imported chemical fertilizers and most farmers are also using diesel-fed tractors to till their farms.

And third, the current agriculture infrastructure that include irrigation and post-harvest facilities are not conducive to lowering the production cost, much more of the price of the rice in the market.

"The aspiration of the incoming president is such a very laudable aspiration as any Filipino would want to have low price rice in our market. I am one of those who dream it but there are still a lot of challenges that we have to put into consideration in this new program towards a P20 per kilo of rice," said Dar during the Laging Handa press briefing on Thursday, June 9.

Dar's statement contradicted the statement issued by officials of the Department of Agriculture who were quoted saying that the P20 per kilo of rice is attainable by next year.

'Work on this dream'

Dar emphasized that this dream of having a P20 per kilo of rice should be translated into concrete actions by the next administration.

"We have to dream to come up with a design program towards that level of price of rice," said Dar.

For a start, Dar said the Marcos administration should work on actions that focus on what are attainable in the next three to four years.

And this, according to Dar, should be anchored on the all-out support to the agriculture sector.

What must be done

Dar laid down some action plan that the Marcos administration should enhanced if it wants to reduce the price of rice in the market.

First, he said there is an urgent need to lower the production cost of the local farmers that include assuring that the price of fertilizers, pesticide and other farm inputs would be stable at lowest price possible.

This is the reason, according to him, why the the Department of Agriculture is heavily promoting the use of bio-fertilizers that were produced by the University of the Philippines- Los Baños as an alternative or should be used alternately with chemical fertilizers.

But even the supply of the bio-fertilizers is not enough since the local production only covers 500 hectares per year.

Second, there should be an all-out support to agriculture infrastructure--from irrigation and post-harvest facilities that include milling and drying facilities.

Third, he said the next administration should work hard in increasing the production output of rice at least in the next four years.

Currently, the average rice production output is 4.5 metric tons per hectare while the hybrid palay has an average of six metric tons per hectare.

Dar said the target should be to increase the rice output to 7.3 metri tons per hectare and at least 10 metric tons for hybrid palay.

And fourth, he said the next administration should focus on ensuring the efficiency of farm production through solid and reliable support system and partnership with as many stakeholders.