NFA observes austere 41st anniversary rites

MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority (NFA) celebrates today its 41st anniversary in an austere yet meaningful way. “In the face of the present political and economic conditions in the country, it is most fair to be holding this occasion simply and without fanfare. We have decided to donate our budget for the anniversary as well as the meal allowance of employees for the victims of the standoff in Zamboanga City,” says administrator Orlan A. Calayag.

Administrator Calayag, however, assures that the traditional conferment of recognition on service and loyalty awardees would still be part of the anniversary program since it symbolizes an important milestone in the lives of employees who have rendered exceptional hardwork and dedication that contributed a lot in making the NFA a major cog in the food industry and the entire agriculture sector.  

The NFA, formerly the National Grains Authority, was created on Sept. 26, 1972, under Presidential Decree No. 4, out of a need to restore order and discipline in an ailing grains industry. Its mission is to oversee the growth and development of the grains industry which is a major component of national development. It has been a boom-bust cycle of existence for the agency which has sailed through rough waters yet always measured up to the standards of excellence in public service that has become a way of life in its daily struggle to ensure the food needs of the nation.

Among its major achievements, aside from its flagship programs geared toward stabilization of the supply and price of rice (the country’s staple food) are: massive facility build-up composed of modern post-harvest and warehousing facilities, driers, rice mills, buying stations and grains centers; marketing linkages with farmer organizations and cooperatives; implementation of the Philippine Grains Standardization Program (PGSP) which prescribes standards on quality, packaging, labeling and weighing of rice for greater efficiency, transparency and discipline in the grains marketing industry; advocate of government’s food fortification law; a disaster and crisis preparedness program; a rice conservation and rice quality management program.

In its early years, the agency made possible the country’s rice exports to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Senegal, Mexico and Vietnam. Experimental shipments of different food delicacies, fruits and vegetables were made to Singapore and Middle East as NFA handled the direct supervision of more than 200 Kadiwa centers (selling low-priced food commodities, aside from cereals) located in the heart of thickly populated middle and low income communities across the country.

The NFA also ventured into commercial food processing or commercial utilization of grains by-products; fabrication of bricks from palay husks, alcohol from grains and parboiled rice and the use of rice flour as wheat extender; commercial processing of garlic and onions into powder, flake and tablet forms for foreign markets.

The agency was also tapped as lead agency in the marketing of the Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran (KKK) products which were exhibited at the Bloomingdale complex in New York and Knoxville, Tennessee.

To this day, and despite constant threats to its mandate, the NFA strives to crown its existence with the kind of social responsibility that brings about positive change and security in the food industry.