THE National Food Authority (NFA) regional office has increased its target in palay procurement program this year upon seeing that more farmers opt to sell their produce to the government grains agency, an official said.

NFA Assistant Regional Director Rolando Maravilla said they have increased the target to procure this year more than 100,000 bags of palay of 50 kilos each from the initial target of 70,000 bags.

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"As we see the trend, although it is still January, several farmers prefer to sell their produce to us," Maravilla said in an interview.

Maravilla said the farmers are enticed to sell their produce to them since NFA is giving out incentive to farmers or association of farmers that sell 50 bags of palay at one time to the grains agency.

The incentive the NFA is giving for free to farmers or association of farmers is P1,800 worth of fertilizers, according to Maravilla.

He said the giving out of incentive is in line with the NFA central office program on massive procurement of palay nationwide.

He said the buying price of NFA is P17 per kilo for palay sold with 12 percent to 14 percent moisture content.

Maravilla said he foresees that they could surpass last year's volume of palay bought from farmers in the region "with the trend that is going on."

As of January 21, the NFA regional office has already purchased a total of 19,000 bags of palay, according to Maravilla.

The NFA purchased last year a total of 140,000 bags of palay in Zamboanga Peninsula.

He said they have established nine buying stations in the region where rice farmers could sell their produce.

The buying stations are located in the towns of Ipil, Malangas, and Titay in Zamboanga Sibugay province; Liloy, Sergio Osmeña, and Siocon in Zamboanga del Norte; and, Bayog, Molave and Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur.

Maravilla said that for Zamboanga City, they have rented vehicles to pick up the rice produce of the farmers from their respective farms.

Maravilla said Zamboanga del Sur is the largest palay producing province in Zamboanga Peninsula, followed by Zamboanga Sibugay. (Bong Garcia)