WITH the prevailing low buying price of palay among traders, the National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental sees an increase in its palay procurement, its top official said.
Engineer Frisco Canoy, provincial manager of NFA-Negros Occidental, said the agency continues to procure palay from local farmers at a support price of P17 per kilogram.
This is on top of additional incentives of P3 per kilogram, and P0.70 per kilogram earlier given to farmers comprise of drying incentive of P0.20, delivery incentive of P0.20, and cooperative development incentive fee of P0.30 intended for associations where they belong.
Canoy said an individual farmer, therefore, can get a maximum of P20.40 per kilogram while members of farmer cooperatives are getting maximum of P20.70 per kilogram of palay being sold to the NFA.
“We have been campaigning, especially through our meetings with the farmers, that we are still open to buy their produce,” he added.
NFA-Negros Occidental records showed that since January this year, they have purchased about 2,000 bags of palay from farmers in the province.
Bulk of this volume were sold to the NFA through its buying station in San Carlos City.
Other buying stations are in the warehouses of the agency in Ilog town and Bacolod City.
Considering that Bago City is the rice granary of the province, Canoy said they are opening another buying station at the Rice Processing Center in Barangay Tabunan.
Canoy said a team there can start catering to farmers whose palay were already dried.
“They can actually dry their palay at the processing center then it will be directly sold to us through our buying station there,” he added.
In terms of buying price of rice among traders, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) said the average prevailing price in the province is P13 to P14 per kilogram.
This is lower than the previous P18 to P20 per kilogram, before the implementation of the rice tariffication law.
“The NFA is offering a competitive price for the local farmers,” he said, adding that “the agency can cater to any volume of locally-produced palay.”
It can be recalled that effective March 5 this year, the Rice Import and Export Liberalization Law has removed the regulatory functions of the NFA over international and domestic trading of rice.
NFA-Negros Occidental, like other provincial offices, can no longer act on licensing and registration of persons and entities engaged in the grains business, and collection of regulatory fees.
Other functions stripped from the agency included issuance of negotiable warehouse receipts, warehouse inspection, and authority to seize hoarded stocks, and enforce rules and regulations in the grains business.
Its concentration will now be on buffer stocking mainly for emergencies and calamities.