The government has increased the maximum kilos of rice a household can buy from Kadiwa stores to 30 kilos, an Agriculture official said.

In a recent Palace briefing, National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Larry Lacson said Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. recently ordered an increase in the availability of the P29 per kilo of rice.

The move aims to increase from 10 kilos to 30 kilos maximum of rice poor and vulnerable households can purchase per month.

The department also broadened the reach of its P29 per kilo rice program by adding more Kadiwa stores nationwide, Lacson said.

The DA launched a large-scale trial of the P29-rice program last year which aimed at providing high-quality rice to as many as 6.9 million “vulnerable households,” representing around 35 million Filipinos.

A total of 10 Kadiwa stores in Metro Manila and Bulacan started to sell the low-priced rice in the trial program and are now expanding to other Kadiwa outlets.

The P29 per kilo rice is sourced from aging stocks of the NFA to be sold to the vulnerable households, which the DA described as beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), solo parents, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and indigenous people.

The 4Ps program is a human development measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said.

Meanwhile, the government has also started selling P33-rice to Kadiwa stores in resettlement sites for public housing beneficiaries as part of the government’s program to ensure food security.

The government has been putting up Kadiwa stores that sell P33 per kilo of rice in housing sites of the NHA starting this April, General Manager Joeben Tai said in a statement.

Tai said more Kadiwa stores will open in different areas from this month to May 2025.