Funding For Rice Farm Mechanization

The decision to set aside the move to import 300,000 metric tons of rice from Vietnam under a government-to-government scheme will save some ₱8.5 billion that can now be used for more urgent needs of the nation.

The Philippines had planned to buy the 300,000 tons of rice as a reserve in case the country incurs a shortage of the Filipino people’s staple food. It did not want to go through the difficult experience of 2018 when market prices hit record heights – an inflation rate of 6.7 percent – that was stopped only when Congress enacted the Rice Tariffication Law that ended all quantitative restrictions on rice imports. With cheap rice available at a low price, inflation quickly dropped in succeeding months; by June, 2019, it was down to 2.7 percent.