NFA to look into reports of irregularity in rice import program

The National Food Authority (NFA) is set to look into reports that non-farmer cooperatives were able to get licenses to parti-cipate in the rice importation program of the agency.

Presidential Adviser on Agri-cultural Modernization and con-current NFA Council chairman Angelito M. Sarmiento directed NFA Administrator Arthur Yap to look into the validity of the com-plaints and to impose sanction on erring parties.

Rice import licenses are issued by NFA to verified farmer coope-ratives registered with the Coope-rative Development Authority as per guidelines issued by the NFA Council.

Sarmiento said the NFA follows very strict rules in implementing the commitment of President Ar-royo. He encourages farmer leaders to actively participate in the monitoring of NFA programs to assure participation of the palay farming sector.

The Farmer as Importer (FAI) program was launched by NFA in compliance with the commitment of President Arroyo to farmers in her State of the Nation Address. The first implementation of the program was opened to farmers organizations on Jan. 15, 2003 co-vering 150,000 metric tons and was filled up on the very first day, leaving hundreds of other cooperative applicants in the waiting list.

Sarmiento said the allocation was done on a first-come, first-served basis, with the Land Bank of the Philippines as the control-ling bank which will issue letters of credit as rice importation is still under quantitative restriction. Each cooperative can import a maximum of 10,000 metric tons per year under the guidelines approved by the council, Sarmiento added.

"The government is committed to implement programs that will increase farmers’ income, and any complaint of unequal treatment or favoritism on the part of NFA employee will not be tolerated," Sarmiento said.

He earlier met with Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. to work out a solution to the concern raised by various farmer groups especial-ly those from the Visayas and Mindanao.

Sarmiento said the council will conduct a thorough review of the procedure and that changes or amendments will be made if necessary to make the program more equitable in view of the strong desire of farmer cooperatives to participate in the Farmer as Importer program.

He also assured cooperative leaders that the NFA will take strong action against parties out to discredit the program at the expense of palay farmers.