Republic Act No. 12078 An Act Amending Republic Act No. 8178 Or The “Agricultural Tariffication Act”, As Amended By Republic Act No. 11203.

Republic Act No. 12078 amends the Agricultural Tariffication Act by strengthening the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) regulatory powers over rice, including maintaining a national registry of grain warehouses, conducting inspections, and analyzing rice trade data for policy decisions. It empowers the DA Secretary to declare food security emergencies on rice, allowing the sale of National Food Authority (NFA) buffer stocks, replenishment with local rice, and importation under government-to-government agreements to stabilize supply and prices. The Act establishes a five-billion peso rice buffer fund funded by unutilized DA budget and excess tariff collections, and amends tariff-related presidential powers for importing rice in times of supply or price crises. It also updates NFA’s rice buffer stock maintenance and disposal rules and creates a Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) of thirty billion pesos annually until 2031 to finance mechanization, seed development, and priority agriculture programs aimed at enhancing rice farmers' productivity, with oversight mechanisms for fund utilization and beneficiary validation.