The National Food Authority (NFA) has surpassed its target procurement for palay (unmilled rice) for the first half of this year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Sunday, June 16.
In a statement, the agency said NFA's palay procurement totaled nearly 3.37 million 50-kilo bags as of June 13.
It noted that this surpasses the target of 3.36 million bags.
“This translates to approximately 168,262 metric tons of palay, the total inventory is now sufficient to cover four days of national consumption in case of emergencies or disasters,” the DA said.
The agriculture department attributed the surpassed palay procurement target to the hiked buying prices of the NFA. Such helped to boost the national buffer stock and increase farmers' income.
In mid-April, the NFA Council increased the maximum buying price to P30 from the previous cap of P23 per kilo and raised the base price to P17 per kilo from P16.
NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said they will “continue to scour the countryside for additional palay that we could buy to bolster the national buffer stock,” he said.
According to the DA, even after significant high-price purchases in recent weeks, the NFA still has around P12 billion left for palay procurement in the second half of the year, from the total P17 billion rice procurement budget, including funds carried over from last year.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. stated that they are very pleased with the NFA Council's decision to raise the palay procurement price.
“We will persist with this program to ensure our rice farmers benefit from their hard work,” he added.