
Rice farmers said they are happy with the recent increase in the buying price of palay as the country’s rice harvest season begins.
Earlier, President Marcos announced that the National Food Authority (NFA) Council had increased the purchase price for dry palay from P19 to P23, and the price for wet palay from P16 to P19.
In a press release, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), stated that farmers group have expressed gratitude to Marcos for increasing the price of palay to help rice farmers earn more.
Cesar Daayata, head of the Paradise Village CARP Beneficiaries and Farmer-Irrigators Association (PAVICABEFIA) in Wao, Lanao del Sur, thanked Marcos for issuing the said order.
“Pasalamat ko sa atung halangdon nga presidente nga unta mapadayon pa niya ang daghan kaayo nga kaayuhan alang sa mga mag-uuma aron sa pagpabarog ug lig-on alang sa atong rice production (I thank the President, hoping that he will continue to strengthen the welfare of rice farmers in order to strengthen our rice production),” he said.
According to Daayata, this has prompted his group to sell its produce to the NFA and he anticipates further encouraging events that will increase the nation's rice production.
The NFA-Isabela said that rice harvesting has already begun in the province and farmers are happy with the new sets of buying prices regardless of whether they give it to their financiers or the NFA warehouse as buying prices are assured.
By the third week of October, NFA-Isabela anticipates that its warehouse will be fully occupied.
The PCO said that rice harvesting has also started in Molinao, Albay.
“Drying facilities are now being filled for the drying process of palay before being transported to its respective buyers,” it stated.
Malinao rice farmer Melchor Borhal has also thanked the Chief Executive for increasing the buying price of palay, saying such will immensely help local farmers
On Oct. 4, Marcos lifted Executive Order No. 39, or the nationwide price cap of rice, after almost a month of its implementation.
Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban has earlier allayed the fears of rice farmers that the farmgate price of rice may go down due to the implementation of the cap. “The farmgate price of palay will not decrease because when the President says that is the price cap, that’s it,” he said in Filipino.
The Department of Agriculture (DA), which Marcos concurrently heads, has recently recorded stable rice prices for regular and well-milled rice following the lifting of the price cap.
During his campaign, Marcos said that he was aspiring to bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilo.