The Department of Agriculture (DA) is organizing the Bigas ng Masa TienDA today in front of its central office in Quezon City where commercial rice will be sold for only P38 per kilo.
In a Facebook post, Agricuture Secretary Manny Piñol said it will mark the start of a nationwide program which would directly connect rice farmers with consumers.
“The Bigas ng Masa TienDA is a national program where the DA will assist farmers’ groups, associations and cooperatives, including irrigators’ associations, in the milling, packaging and marketing of their rice produce which would be sold directly to consumers,” he said.
Piñol added through the program, farmers’ groups will be allowed to use open spaces in the DA regional offices to serve as outlets for their produce.
“Bigas ng Masa TienDA will be established in every town throughout the country to provide consumers with affordable freshly-milled rice direct from the farms,” he said.
Piñol believes the program will be of great help to farmers in that it will allow them “complete control” of their operations.
“From plowing, planting, harvesting, milling, packaging and marketing,” Piñol said.
“We will link up this program with the Land Bank of the Philippines, where I sit as member of the Board of Directors, so that farmers’ groups we will provided with a working capital so they could buy their members’ produce.”
Piñol pointed to the scheme having been already successfully implemented in Japan and South Korea.
“In South Korea, farmers have federated into a national cooperative called Nong Hyup and they operate their own supermarkets, banks, cargo and insurance companies,” he shared.
The Bigas ng Masa TienDA outlets will just focus mainly on rice but farmers will later be allowed to sell other farm products through the program as well.
