Farmers cry for help as palay prices drop. Inquirer Newsletter September 29, 2020

No images? Click here   RABIES SHOT A kitten in Tondo, Manila, peers through a human face mask as she gets vaccinated on Monday, in time for World Rabies Day. Every year 200 to 300 Filipinos die from infection of rabies, a viral disease that is usually transmitted through the bite of an infected animal and is extremely fatal. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ     Business 6% of 1.4M MSMEs remain closed Only 6 percent of the more than 1.4 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across the country remain closed this month, lower than the peak of 38 percent back in April, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said. —STORY BY Roy Stephen C. Canivel Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/308427/6-of-1-4m-msmes-remain-closed   News  DTI chief: Allow more businesses to reopen Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said more businesses should be allowed to fully reopen and expand their current capacity even if the current general community quarantine (GCQ) would be retained. —STORY BY Leila B. Salaverria Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1341280/dti-chief-allow-more-businesses-to-reopen   World World counts 1M COVID-19 deaths PARIS—More than 1 million people have died from the coronavirus, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) toll, after the deadly disease emerged less than a year ago in China and swept around the globe. —STORY BY AFP Read more: bit.ly/inquirer-plus   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine. Subscribe   Get here     Banner story Farmers cry for help as palay prices drop By Armand Galang, Marlon Ramos and Karl R. Ocampo @Team_Inquirer CABANATUAN CITY—Left with no choice, Donie Roberto, a farmer in Barangay Bitas here, has to sell his rice harvest at P15.50 a kilogram, just a little above production cost. “There’s a profit, but it’s not much,” he told the Inquirer. Roberto said farmers like him would usually need to sell their harvest of palay (unhusked rice) for at least P17 a kilo to recover labor cost. “What’s worse is that when there’s rain, the price of palay usually drops further because it affects the quality of the grain,” he said. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Monday called on the Department of Agriculture (DA) to investigate the alarming drop in the buying price of locally grown rice, which has reportedly plummeted to as low as P12 a kilo, making the staple cheaper than a COVID-19 mask. Rice tariffication law “I’m urging DA to look into it. [I also] proposed to [provide] financial assistance to rice farmers,” Recto told the Inquirer in a Viber message. He said the department should check if the plunging farmgate price of palay was really an adverse effect of the rice tariffication law, which opened the country to imported rice from Vietnam and Thailand where rice production is usually cheaper due to government subsidies and mechanization. It should also consider postponing the implementation of rice tariffication if it was really causing the dip in the buying price of rice, he said. —WITH REPORTS FROM INQ Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial Overdue relief One piece of good news for consumers came last week as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas announced that it was capping the interest rate on credit card purchases at 2 percent a month, or a total of 24 percent a year. Starting on Nov. 3, credit card issuers can also charge monthly add-on rates up to a maximum of only 1 percent on credit card installment loans. Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net   Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines.   Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Preferences  |  Unsubscribe