FARMERS said the government needs to initiate a safeguard duties investigation into foreign rice producers, claiming that domestic cultivators have suffered losses amounting to P43 billion due to unfair competition from imported rice. Raul Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), said freezes on rice imports and hikes on rice import tariffs need to be supplemented by a formal safeguard duties investigation. The law gives the government the power to impose safeguard duties on such imports, on top of regular taxes charged on the commodity. The Magsasaka Party-list provided the estimate of lost income sustained by 2.5 million rice farmers. Mr. Cabatbat said: “The very survival of rice farmers and the long-term security of our entire agricultural sector” is at stake.