Piñol backs P3 hike in palay buying price

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is backing the state-run National Food Authority (NFA)’s proposal to increase its buying price for unmilled rice or palay.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said he recently talked to NFA administrator Jason Aquino and suggested that the latter should push through with its proposal to increase prices, but only by P3 following the council’s denial of NFA’s proposed P5 price hike.

“NFA should stop acting like an agency which is only involved in the procurement of rice, it should broaden its scope beyond just importing rice for the country,” Piñol said.

The buying price remains at P17 per kilogram for clean and dry. It gives an additional incentive of P0.20 to P0.50 per kilogram for delivery, P0.20 per kg for drying and P0.30 for cooperative development incentive fund for farmers’ organizations.

“Increase in production of rice is giving the farmers the right motivation to produce more, which is better price. Instead of focusing all of its resources on importation, NFA should prioritize local procurement of rice at a higher price,” Piñol said.

The agri chief has been pushing for the department’s inclusion in the NFA Council to be able to voice out its side on the issue of rice production and importation.

“ We manifested the desire of DA to join, but no response yet,” he said.

Apart from this, Piñol is urging local businessmen and establishments to prioritize the buying of local produce to help the countryside  and address poverty at the same time.

“It is high time for Filipino businessmen to be patriotic and they can do that by limiting their importation of basic agricultural products,” he said.

The DA is set to sign a memorandum of agreement with NFA for the establishment of drying facilities within the latter’s compounds.

“Even if NFA is not under us, we will coordinate with them for the drying facilities which farmers can use. That is also one of the problems of NFA, they could not buy that much because they lack the facilities,” Pinol said.

The NFA targets to procure 4.6 million bags or about 230,000 metric tons of palay from local farmers nationwide until yearend to boost buffer stock and rice distribution requirements.