NFA to continue ‘Farmers as Importers’ program

Despite growing criticisms, the National Food Authority (NFA) will maintain the Farmers as Importers (FAI) program which allows farmer groups to engage in rice importation and trading.

"We will definitely continue with the program. It has its problems, but we cannot yet consider it as a failure because more rice-based farmer organizations have expressed interest in participating in the program," said NFA Administrator and acting Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap.

FAI, introduced in 2002 by the NFA, was supposed to be a vehicle for rice farmers to go beyond production of the country’s major staple and go into rice trading. It was intended as a "training ground" for farmers to eventually become producers and traders at the same time, especially when the country becomes self-sufficient and can begin exporting surplus production.

This year, FAI participants were allowed to bring in 310,000 metric tons (MT) of this year’s programmed rice imports of 810,000-945,000 MT. However, qualified farmer groups were able to bring in a measly 16,000 MT.

As a result, NFA was prompted to grant rice traders the allocation meant for the farmers as well as bid out the rest of the volume intended for the FAI program.