Davao City 1st district Rep. Paolo Duterte and Benguet lone district Rep. Eric Go Yap have filed twin measures that would serve as a boon to Filipino farmers if and when they are enacted.

Filed by the duo were House Bill (HB) No.3382, which prods the national and local governments to source food for their relief and school-feeding programs from local farmers; and its complimentary measure, HB 3383, which seeks to appropriate funds for the establishment nationwide of modern rice-drying facilities that will be accessible to farmers for free.

“It is only fitting to put our farmers first when attending to our countrymen’s urgent need for subsistence as our farmers are considered as the nation’s first responders in fulfilling our food requirements. This bill does not aim to derail fair competition in terms of foreign trade and importation, but to support the produce of our own,” the Duterte and Yap said in HB No.3382.

Under HB No.3382, national government agencies and the local government units (LGUs) are mandated to prioritize the purchase of produce from farmers in implementing their respective relief and school-feeding programs.

“Prioritizing the purchase of local produce shall mean the exhaustion of all available and applicable local produce at the most reasonable and practicable cost before resorting to imported or foreign produce,” the bill stated.

To ensure that the government, particularly the National Food Authority (NFA), purchases farm produce at competitive prices, the two lawmakers have also made the establishment of rice-drying systems mandatory under HB 3383.

The NFA buys clean and dry palay (unhusked rice) with 14 percent moisture content at P19 per kilo, which small farmers can only offer if they have access to dryers.

Because they lack these facilities, many farmers are left with no choice but to sell their palay at bargain basement prices to local traders for only P12 per kilo. The cheap price makes it difficult for farmers to recover their expenses, the two lawmakers pointed out.

Under their proposal, the NFA shall “procure, build, install, operate, manage, and/or maintain rice drying facilities sufficient in quantity and geographically accessible to local farmers to enable it to buy rice directly from local farmers".

These drying facilities are free for farmers to use if their produce will be sold directly to the NFA.