NFA urged to set up palay buying stations near farms

MANILA, Philippines - As rice farmers harvest their third quarter produce, food security advocates are urging the National Food Authority (NFA) to step up its palay or paddy rice procurement by putting up buying stations near farm areas.

Arze Glipo, Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS) lead convenor, said that the proposed 2011 NFA budget cut is an insult to farmers who are already struggling against high input cost and cheap procurement price.

“Depriving NFA of the subsidies will incapacitate it to these functions and we may see a scenario where even NFA’s existing facilities like warehouses and rice mills will be privatized as there will be no money for operating them, again profiting the already rich traders at the expense of poor farmers who will be needing these facilities particularly when typhoons may come these months,” Glipo said.

She suggested that instead of cutting NFA’s budget, the government should improve the agency’s efficiency by getting rid of corrupt officials who connive with profit-driven intermediaries, by purchasing more trucks and warehouses, and by increasing its procurement rate from the current five percent of total production to at least 10 percent.

Government estimates that the total rice production this September will reach 3.39 million metric tons, 3.7 percent lower than last year’s production of 3.52 MMT.

The NFA buys palay at P17 per kilogram, higher than the P10 to P12 per kilogram buying price of middlemen.

Without the subsidy, NFA will have limited funds to purchase palay from farmers.

TFFS echoed the sentiments of Senators Franklin Drilon and Edgardo Angara who said that removing the whole rice subsidy of the NFA would, in effect, abolish the government agency.

Drilon and Angara argued that if the government really wants to abolish the NFA, the law must be amended.