Wednesday, March 05, 2008 NFA offers extra 50 centavos per kilo of palay
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The National Food Authority (NFA) is encouraging farmers to sell to the food agency their harvest palay and avail of the additional 50 centavos per kilogram additional payment via the La NiDa Incentive Fee (LNIF).
Elvira Obada, NFA Pampanga provincial manager, said the LNIF will be granted to farmers and farmer organizations who would sell to the NFA their palay until March 31.
With the LNIF, the buying price of palay per kilogram by NFA will be at P11.75 for individual farmers and P12 for cooperatives.
Without the LNIF, NFA buys palay from individual farmers for P11.25 per kilogram and P11.50 per kilogram for cooperatives, who are given an additional 25-centavo representing the Cooperative Development Incentive Fee (CDIF).
Obada said the LNIF would end this month if it would not be extended by the NFA.
Authorized by Administrative Order (AO) 9-2K7-11-023, the LNIF is given as support to farmers to mitigate the effects of La Nida and also encourage them to sell their harvest grains to the food agency instead of going to commercial grain buyers.
Obada said selling their palay to the NFA would be advantageous to farmers since the agency provides various programs that return favors to farmers such as the Institutionalized Farmers as Distributors (Ifad) and the Farmers Option to Buy Back (Fobb).
Under the Ifad, farmer organizations who would sell their palay to the NFA would be given allocation from imported rice which they could sell in retail.
Obada said on March 11, the initial shipment of imported rice from Vietnam will arrive for the NFA's stockpiling. About 55,000 cavans of rice from the shipment is allocated for Pampanga.
She said since the province has enough rice until the lean months, the NFA would wait for the next shipment of imported rice before a full-blown distribution of the first batch of delivery.
Through the Fobb, on the other hand, farmers who sell their palay to the NFA have the option to buy back the grains they have sold if buying price of palay would be higher in commercial grain trading.
Within six months from selling their palay, the farmers have the chance to retrieve their palay for whatever price it was sold to the NFA. A minimal charge for storage expenses would be added to the resell price. (ABL)
