The National Food Authority said it is ready to undertake aggressive palay buying for the main harvest starting this month, with its logistics ready as early as a month ago, including close to P1 billion in procurement funds already dispersed to all NFA branches nationwide.

NFA administrator Gregorio Y. Tan Jr. said NFA’s readiness for aggressive palay buying this year was discussed in a meeting with farmer leaders from the Kilusang Mag-bubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the National Federation of Peasant Women (AMIHAN) last Monday. During the meeting, KMP and AMIHAN presented a resolution calling, among others, for an increase in the palay support price from the current P10 to P15 per kilogram.

Tan said that drastically increasing the government support price at this time would only create a problem for both the farmers and the consumers. "At P15/kg buying price for palay, the NFA will be forced to buy less and therefore the benefits of the support price will also be limited to a lesser number of farmers. Besides, the rule-of-thumb in rice marketing dictates that the selling price of rice is double the buying price of palay. Rice at P30/kg is certainly high for consumers," Tan explained.

He said the matter of increasing the palay support price is an interagency concern not just NFA’s and it is based on a thorough study of the parameters of production and marketing as the government is duty-bound to protect the interests of both the farmer-producers and the consumers.

Tan said that a recent report from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) showed that at the current palay support price of P10/kg, the farmers are effectively getting some 30 percent return on investment as production cost which is estimated to be between P7.80 and P7.90/kg.

Field reports reaching the NFA also showed that palay prices during the summer harvest from April to May this year averaged at P11.40/kg nationwide, a price higher than the NFA support price.

Tan explained that instead of increasing the palay support price, the NFA is pushing for a reduction in the cost of production. "Greater productivity is a win-win situation for both the farmers and consumers and the NFA can assist the agriculture department in achieving this situation through an assiduous effort in reducing post-harvest losses," he said.

The NFA administrator assured that the agency continues to buy palay nationwide, especially in areas where prices fall below the agency’s support price. As early as September, the agency has already set in place a total of 312 buying stations in strategic areas nationwide to undertake procurement operations during the main harvest.

In the wake of typhoon "Milenyo," Tan has instructed all NFA field officials to coordinate with the KMP and other farmer organizations as well as local government units (LGUs) on making available NFA’s mobile procurement teams in areas where these are needed and allowing the farmers to avail of the agency’s mechanical driers to minimize damage on wet palay.

At the same time, Tan said the NFA welcomes farmers reporting and coordinating with the agency on areas where palay prices are low so that it could immediately dispatch mobile procurement teams to assure affected farmers of the benefits of government’s support price.

For more information on the NFA’s palay buying program, the public may send their inquiries via the Text NFA Program with mobile number 0917-6210927.