NFA sustains aggressive palay procurement

The National Food Authority is taking advantage of sufficient budgetary support and the good weather to maximize its palay buying operations. Thus far, the agency has procured some 3.42 million bags of palay during the past two and a half months.

NFA Administrator Arthur C. Yap said they have been able to buy more than 50 percent of the five million bags targeted until the main harvest ends.

Procurement for the main harvest runs from October to December but at times spills over until the middle of January to accommodate late harvests.

Yap said the NFA is targeting to buy 8.6 million bags of palay for this year. The NFA has allocated P3.7 billion in procurement funds for the last three months which could buy close to seven million bags.

With the NFA buying aggressively, the average daily palay procurement went up to as high as 80,993 bags in November, Yap added.

Yap noted that the NFA’s aggressive buying provides stability in the prevailing ex farm price of palay recorded at P8.82 per kg on a nationwide average.

Aside from offering a relatively better price, the NFA is also giving incentives including P0.10/kg transport, P0.15/kg drying fees and P0.25 per kg Cooperative Development Incentive Fund or CDIF to encourage Farmers’ Organizations to sell their palay to NFA. These incentives are exclusive of the NFA’s P9 per kg support price for palay for the main crop and P10 per kg for the summer harvest.

The grant of incentives translates to P9.50/kg the effective palay buying rate of NFA from September to February and P10.50/kg for the period from March to August.

Both individual farmers and the cooperatives can avail of the drying and transport incentives while the CDIF will accrue only to the cooperatives and Farmers’ Organization.