NOTING that farm-gate prices have steadily dropped since January as the summer harvest peaks, no less than National Food Authority administrator Renan B. Dalisay is instructing the agency’s field offices to intensify palay buying from farmers harvesting their summer crop.
Data gathered by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) show that from P18.50 per kilogram in January, the buying price of palay has gone down to P17.85 in February and PP17.94 as of the second week of March.
As early as January, the NFA has been receiving field reports that palay fresh harvest is being bought by traders by as low as P14-P16/kg in some areas.
This prompted the NFA chief to mobilize the agency’s offices to conduct massive palay procurement to assure the farmers of reasonable income from their produce.
Procurement funds were also immediately disbursed and procurement logistics, including mobile procurement teams, were put in place.
The NFA buys clean and dry palay at P17/kg, with additional incentives totaling to P0.70/kg for delivery (P0.20), drying (P0.20), and cooperative incentive fee (P0.30). The agency is currently buying palay at an average of 12,422 bags daily.
Last month, NFA surpassed its procurement target by 165 percent, buying a total of 145,576 bags over the 88,050 bags target for the month.
As of the third week of March, the agency had already bought 195,649 bags or 84 percent of the month’s target of 231,950 bags.
The NFA targets to buy this year a total of 3,796,900 bags or 189,845 metric tons of palay to beef up the country’s buffer stock.
Bulk of the supply would come in during the main harvest season from October to December, according to the NFA head.
Its current rice inventory stands at 490,604 metric tons, 12 percent or 40,453 MT of which is in palay form.
Based on the national daily rice requirement of 31,000 MT, this inventory level is good to last for 16 days or more than the mandatory 15-day food security buffer supply at any time of the year.
With Chief Dalisay at the helm, it’s really on the right direction and with other key officials like Manager Jaime Hadlocon, of NFA northern district office, giving their best for the agency it’ll surely soon recover from recent previous controversies to which this writer is on the belief that it’s not actually the fault of its executives as this was a mere creation of those outside it out to destroy their credibility for their obvious vested interest.
We’re just around to be with you come what may as long as you do it right for the people, for the poor people. GOOD RIDDANCE/ARLIE CALALO
.. Continue: Remate.ph (source)
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