PALAY PROCUREMENT. The National Food Authority in Nueva Ecija starts procuring palay from local farmers in this province, its manager, Antonio Puno, said Thursday (Sept. 24, 2020). The NFA offers PHP19 per kg. for clean and dry palay. (Photo courtesy of NFA-Nueva Ecija)
GAPAN CITY, Nueva Ecija – The National Food Authority’s (NFA) provincial office here is targeting to procure some 485,000 bags of palay (unhusked rice) up to the last quarter of the year.
NFA-Nueva Ecija manager Antonio Puno, in a radio interview on Thursday, said their agency has allotted a budget of PHP461 million to meet its palay procurement goal this year.
“Ang target po ng NFA-Nueva Ecija na bibilhin sa ating mga magsasaka nito pong last quarter ay 485,000 bags of palay. Yun po ang target natin. Subalit, hindi ibig sabihin na kapag na-meet na natin ang target ay titigilan na. Tuloy-tuloy pa rin po tayo. Pwede pang mag-exceed (The target of NFA-Nueva Ecija to buy from our farmers in the last quarter is 485,000 bags of rice. That is our target. However, this does not mean that once we meet the target, we will stop. We will continuously procure palay. We can still exceed the figure),” Puno said.
The NFA has begun buying clean and dry palay from farmers at PHP19 per kg.
“Our buying price is way ahead (of) private traders. Thus, we are encouraging our farmers to sell their palay to us,” he said.
So far, Puno said their agency has procured some 33,640 bags of palay from farmers in the province.
He said the NFA is making the rounds of rice farmers' associations and cooperatives province-wide.
Likewise, Puno said the grains agency linked with the city and municipal agriculture officers to help convey to the farmers its latest round of palay procurement.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary William Dar assured farmers that the Department of Agriculture, through the NFA, would intensify its palay procurement and even take the “extra mile” by picking up their produce right at their respective barangays.
To optimize the agency’s procurement funds, Dar instructed the NFA to immediately mill the palay then sell it to local government units or the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and subsequently rollover the amount and buy more from farmers, thus creating a multiplier effect. (PNA)
