NFA sets aside P17B for palay procurement

The National Food Authority is setting aside P17 billion this year to buy up to 20 million bags of palay, NFA administrator Jessup Navarro said yesterday.

Navarro said the NFA would continue its aggressive palay buying this first quarter. The agency bought some 13 million bags of palay in 2008.

According to Navarro, NFA’s palay procurement peaks normally from October to December and tapers off as the new year starts.

This year, Navarro said the NFA’s high support price for palay is encouraging farmers to sell their produce to the NFA. The agency’s daily average palay purchase was at 154,650 bags until the end of December.

From the previous P11.50 per kilogram, President Arroyo approved an increase in the NFA palay buying price to P17 per kilogram starting April 2008 for clean and dry palay with 14 percent moisture content and a minimum of 95 percent purity. 

Farmers were also granted an additional fertilizer incentive of P1,800 per 50 bags of 50 kilogram palay sold to the NFA.

“A higher ex-farm price and an additional incentive to boot makes farming attractive and contributes in making agriculture an anchor for economic growth,” Navarro said.

The increase in palay buying price allowed the NFA to buy a substantial portion of last year’s harvest to augment the agency’s inventory of food security stocks.

The NFA to date has bought 13.2 million bags of palay, posting the second highest procurement volume in the last 29 years.