The National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Oriental has started its procurement of palay to bolster the province’s current buffer stock, an official said Wednesday.
Emily Diputado, NFA-Negros Oriental OIC-manager, told the Philippine News Agency that some rice farmers in the province harvested some yield despite the long drought triggered by the El Niño phenomenon.
“Last week, we embarked on a campaign urging farmers to sell palay to NFA based on a new pricing scheme, and within a week, we had our first procurement,” she said.
Diputado added that on June 17, the agency purchased 37 bags of palay at 40 kilograms each from a single source, a farmer from Barangay Tugas in Tanjay City.
The NFA’s new pricing scheme is pegged at PHP19 a kilo for freshly harvested/wet palay and PHP28 for clean and dry palay.
She expressed hope that farmers whose farms managed to survive the El Niño would sell their palay to NFA as it does not have enough buffer stock.
Some farmers had already sold their harvest to commercial traders at a higher price of PHP22 a kilo for freshly harvested or wet palay.
Last March, two NFA warehouses in Negros Oriental –one in Dumaguete City and another in Guihulngan City, and the lone warehouse in Siquijor province, were shut down after the Department of Agriculture ordered the suspension of some agency officials and an investigation into the alleged improper sale of rice buffer stock.
On May 22 and onwards, the three warehouses were allowed to reopen following the reinstatement of the officials, and inventory was done before palay procurement.
The current buffer stock of NFA-Negros Oriental is now at roughly 4,000 bags of rice, Diputado said.
She added they requested the head office for a shipment of 30,000 bags of the staple to ensure there is enough supply for distribution during emergencies and calamities. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
