Monday, December 03, 2007 NFA projects rice shortage next year
KORONADAL CITY -- The National Food Authority in Central Mindanao has urged palay farmers in the area to sell their produce to the grains agency to temper an anticipated rice crisis next year in the country.
Ernesto Macasinag, NFA-Central Mindanao director, said there is a need to gather considerable volume of palay stocks for food security purposes.
In asking palay farmers to deliver their produce to the grains agency, he said the government has increased its buying price for palay to P11.50 per kilo, inclusive of incentives.
He added the grains agency is also planning to add another 50 centavos to the buying price to lure more farmers to deliver their palay to the NFA.
Macasinag said the palay stocks that will be procured by the grains agency in the region this season would form part of NFA's rice reserve for the first quarter of 2008.
Mario Gonzales, NFA-Central Mindanao assistant director, said that aside from natural calamities like flash floods, drought and pest infestation that struck the agriculture sector this year, the growing population in the country has been cited as a factor in the looming rice shortage in 2008.
Other rice producing countries such as India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia have been affected by natural calamities, thus the Philippines, being a rice importer, is also projected to suffer, Gonzales said.
