THE Provincial Food Council’s Palay procurement system of Nueva Ecija is now helping farmers sell their palay at a higher price and help them earn more profit out of their hard grown crops.
Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar, for one, witnessed palay farmer Danilo Padilla from Laur, Nueva Ecija sell his wet palay at a better price to the Provincial Food Council at the Nueva Ecija Grain Drying Facility in Palayan City.
Padilla was able to sell his approximately 120 cavans of palay for P14.70 per kilo, which then reflects P1.70 per kilo higher than the going rate price of P13 per kilo from rice traders, giving him a total of P88,000 deal for his initial transaction with the council.
According to Nueva Ecija Provincial Agriculturist Bernardo Valdez, the said procurement system was set to help farmers get best prices for their produce.
The procured palay when milled, in turn, are packaged as part of the food commodities distributed to residents affected by the corona virus pandemic.
Valdez highlighted that the procurement system offers farmers a 24/7-available hotline to call 2 weeks before their harvest and that the council itself picks up the palay straight from the farmer’s land to lessen the palay transportation expenses of the farmer. Farmers who reside far from the facility are offered to sell their palay to their assigned district traders.
Dar also expressed his appreciation to the local government leaders of Nueva Ecija who continuously teams up with the national government to make sure their farmers earn more. The province is expecting the system to raise the palay price higher than the going price and in the long run help the farmers yield more.