Farmers’ groups get over half of NFA rice imports

Farmers’ organizations (FOs) have cornered a substantial portion of the National Food Authority’s (NFA) Special Rice Sales (SRS) program.

NFA administrator and concurrent Agriculture Undersecretary for Luzon operations Arthur Yap said that FOs and cooperatives acquired 285,7120 bags out of the 500,000 bags of imported rice under the food agency’s SRS program.

The SRS program involves the sale of the 500,000 bags of imported rice at P750 per bag. Yap said the program is being implemented to give way to the numerous requests of farmers’ cooperatives (FCs) and FOs prior to the launching of the Institutionalized Farmers as Distributor(IFAD) program next month.

Yap said under the SRS program, the FOs and FCs which participated in either of NFA’s Institutionalized Procurement Program (IPP), Farmer as Distributor (FAD) Program and Farmers as Importer (FAI) Program for 2003 and 2004 are eligible to avail of rice under the SRS program, provided they are licensed and registered as retailers or wholesalers.

A maximum of 10,000 bags can be availed by any participating FOs and FCs. FOs/FCs which have already participated in the SRS program are the Azamiz City People’s Multi-purpose Cooperative (MPC), Liloan MPC, Pederasyon ng Samahang Magsasaka ng Rizal, San Pedro MPC, Bayanihan Hagonoy Multi-purpose Irrigators Coop., Villa Paz PMPC, San Alejandro and Sto. Niño Barangca MPC. Interested

FOs and FCs have to secure certifications from the NFA Provincial office where they are licensed and registered as IPP, FAD or FAI participants.