By Liezle Basa-Inigo
LINGAYEN – The National Food Authority (NFA) in Western Pangasinan assured farmers that it is now ready to buy palay this second crop harvest season.
The agency said the initiative was in support of the administration’s thrust to give the farmers a ready market of their produce.
(JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
It also intends to provide farmers with a better profit margin, particularly during times when the farm price of play was lower than that of the government.
NFA Provincial Manager Ramon Cuaresma said the agency has been buying palay at the support price of P17 per kilogram (kg) plus P0.20 per kg as drying incentive, P0.20 to P0.50 per kg as delivery incentive depending on the distance of the farm to the collecting point/NFA warehouse; P0.30 per kg for the Cooperative Development Incentive Fund; and the P3 per kg as Buffer Stocking Incentive (BSI).
Cuaresma also noted that the granting of additional BSI was in line with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to increase NFA’s rice buffer stock primarily through local palay buying.
The approval of Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Liberalization Law has trimmed down NFA’s functions, requiring the agency to focus on buffer stocking for calamities and emergencies, and sourcing its buffer stocks from local farmers.
NFA advised farmers’ organizations and individual farmers to deliver their palay produce to the following warehouses: Alaminos GID Warehouse in Brgy. Pandayan, Alaminos City; Mangatarem GID Warehouse in Brgy. Umangan, Mangatarem; Ferrer Warehouse in Brgy. Maniboc, Lingayen; and Unique Warehouse in Brgy. Malabago, Mangaldan.