Stronger local procurement of palay pushed

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) and National Food Authority (NFA) will work together to strengthen the palay procurement program in the country, a national government official said.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, in his Facebook post yesterday, said the move will fill up the buffer stocks requirements of the NFA.

It will, at the same time, ensure support prices to Filipino rice farmers in the countryside, he added.

Piñol and NFA Administrator Jason Aquino reached such agreement in an informal meeting in Malacañang during the sidelines of consultation with rice traders and members of the defunct NFA Council on April 5.

The inter-agency cooperation agreement which is expected to be formally signed next week between the two agencies includes five major provisions.

Piñol said his department, through its Regional Offices, will identify areas where buying prices of palay are considerably lower and controlled by traders and middlemen.

The NFA, on the other hand, will focus its palay buying operations in the areas identified by the DA.

It will also provide a space or an area in its buying stations so that the DA could establish drying facilities which the farmers could use for free provided they sell their produce to the food agency.

Piñol said the DA will offer incentives to farmers groups, cooperatives or associations who will sell their palay produce to the NFA.

"We will prioritize these groups in the Production Loan Easy Access program of up to P50,000 per farmer-member at six percent per annum payable in one year," he added.

Under the agreement, the Agriculture Department will also provide an additional incentive of farm machinery grant like tractors and harvesters to farmers groups, who will be able to deliver to the NFA a certain volume of their palay produce.

The NFA is mandated by law to ensure enough buffer stocks of rice for Filipino consumers.

It buys from Filipino farmers at P17 per kilogram “clean and dry” rice and also imports from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia or Pakistan, Piñol said.

Lately, however, the NFA has complained it could not match the buying price of rice set by local traders who buy locally produced palay at P20 to P24 per kilogram, he said.

"This has made the NFA dependent solely on importation to fill up its requirements for a 15-day buffer stock which it uses to stabilize prices in the market and to respond to calamities and emergency situation," Piñol stressed.

Currently, the NFA still has about P7 billion of unused funds intended for local palay procurement, he added. (EPN/SunStar Bacolod)

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