THE National Food Authority (NFA) in Western Visayas is ramping up its
“palay” (unhusked rice) procurement in the region to secure enough buffer stocks amid the prevailing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
NFA-Western Visayas Manager Dianne Silva, in a Facebook post by the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 6, has urged local farmers to sell their produce to the agency to build up adequate buffer stocks as the global health emergency continues.
Silva said they are encouraging farmers to sell their clean and dry palay with 14 percent moisture content to the NFA at P19 per kilogram.
"More than one million bags of palay that we purchased in 2019 had significantly helped the relief operations of the government agencies when lockdown happened due to the pandemic," she added.
The NFA is now aggressive on its procurement drive to help stabilize the price of palay during this peak of the harvest season.
Also, to make cheaper yet quality rice available to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, local government units (LGUs), and other organizations for their rice subsidy distribution programs.
The DSWD is buying the NFA rice for only P1,250 per bag, which is lower than the commercial rice.
With enough buffer stocks from 2019 procurement, the regional line agency was able to supplement the rice shortage in Central and Eastern Visayas regions.
As the price of palay plunged to as low as P10 per kilo in some areas in the region, the NFA said it had opened its 27 palay buying stations and warehouses to provide rice farmers the right compensation for their labor and high production costs.
LGUs in Western Visayas are offering transport vehicles to farmers who cannot bring their harvested palay to the NFA warehouses.
They are also devising programs to help facilitate continuous and smooth procurement transactions with the agency.
In Negros Occidental, Provincial Agriculturist Japhet Masculino earlier said the provincial government is finalizing the measures to help farmers in the province amid the low buying prices of palay.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA), he said, is having an arrangement with the NFA as the latter asked the help of the provincial government for vehicles to transport the procured palay from the farmers going to its warehouses or to the buying stations it will establish.
Quoting Masculino, DA-Western Visayas said Negros Occidental rice farmers can dry their fresh palay for free at the provincial government's Rice Processing Center in Bago City.
The NFA-Western Visayas reported that the region ranked second next to Cagayan Valley Region in terms of palay procurement in September.
Silva said they were able to buy 369,478 bags of palay which is more than 180 percent of our target for the month.
Farmers in Aklan were able to sell 23,376 bags to NFA; Antique - 20,987 bags; Capiz - 63,268 bags; Iloilo and Guimaras - 241,815 bags; and Negros Occidental - 20,041 bags during the start of harvest season last month.
Meanwhile, since not all NFA buying stations have drying facilities farmers are urged to have their palay dried before delivering to the NFA warehouses.
In warehouses with solar dryers, farmer-clients can avail of the palay drying service for free.