NFA backs global competitiveness for rice farmers

National Food Authority Administrator Arthur C. Yap said the food agency is closely coordinating with the Department of Agriculture in helping palay farmers realize maximum profits from their produce while developing their entrepreneurial skills to prepare them to operate under a liberalized global trading environment.

Yap underscored the fact that necessary elements for the farmers to realize profitability and maximum agricultural productivity are being put in place. Among them are the use of hybrid seeds, infrastructure support, farm-to-market roads, post-harvest facility development, credit and marketing assistance.

Yap said the NFA is prioritizing local procurement for buffer stocking purposes. We would like to maximize buying from our own farmers so they could benefit from the government support price and incentives," Yap said.

As of April 14, the NFA had already bought a total of 946,000 bags of palay.

Cagayan Valley leads the areas where procurement is high at 28,700 bags followed by Southern Tagalog at 23,540 bags and Bicol Region at 23,160 bags. This year’s buying performance is higher than that of last year.

For this cropping season, the NFA has increased its palay buying price from P9 to P10 per kilogram, exclusive of the 50-centavos cooperative development, drying and delivery incentive fees granted for every kg of palay sold by farmer organization (FOs) to the agency.

To complement its palay buying blitz, the NFA has set up a total of 434 buying stations in strategic high-production areas across the country which include Isabela, Central Luzon, Mindoro, Iloilo, Cotabato, Davao and Compostela Valley. The number of the new buying stations is higher than what were established last year.

Yap said the shift to hybrid seeds could be the first major step towards self-sufficiency in the staple. But the government must ensure that the farmers are given full support in this endeavor. "On the part of the NFA, we have already started taking them to a new dimension as entrepreneurs by allowing them to participate in the rice importation in consonance with the instructions of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo," Yap said.

For the first time in 30 years, the government has removed from NFA the monopoly of rice importation, with specific instructions from President Arroyo that local farmers organizations be prioritized in taking over that function under the Farmers as Importer Program.

The NFA head also cited that the agency continues to closely monitor the implementation of the FAI program as a transitory program to prepare our local farmers for greater productivity and to empower them with the share of profits gained from rice importation.

He, however, said that there is an apparent misconception among farmers about the FAI program. This was what he observed in his recent consultation with farmers in Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat. A concerted effort is, thus, being undertaken to have the FAI program concept thoroughly understood by farmers. Otherwise, there is a possible danger that our farmers will one day just stop efforts to produce the basic staple and concentrate at importing it instead.

The FAI program is not the end goal of all these efforts of the government to really prepare the farmers for globalization. It is only a means to achieve the goal of greater agriculture productivity," he said.

I dream of a time when the Philippines would no longer have to import rice to fill the local supply gap. That would hopefully also be the day when our farmers have already reached a level of production efficiency that will enable them to effectively compete in the global market, Yap stressed.