NFA assures stable rice supply in 2009

National Food Authority (NFA) assures that the country will have sufficient rice supply for the next three months of the year which will be further augmented by the coming summer harvest.

Contrary to the warning aired by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) that the country will experience volatility in rice supply resulting from the present economic crisis, NFA assured in a report, that there will be sufficient supply this year.

As of the first week of January, NFA administrator Jessup P. Navarro said that the agency has some 18.7 million bags of rice which will be sufficient until the middle of this year based on the agency’s operational rice distribution target.

The rice distribution target keeps track of the agency’s average daily rice sales nationwide.

 He said that the NFA has already learned from the rice supply irregularity experienced last year and has therefore implemented several strategies to improve its grains inventory this year which include the increase in its domestic palay procurement.

From a measly 651,540 bags of palay bought in 2007, NFA cited that their palay procurement have jumped to 13.2 million bags in 2008 which is equivalent to 8.7 million bags of rice.

The agency attributes this positive outcome to the efforts made by the Department of Agriculture to increase the agency’s support price for palay at to P17 per kilogram.

With this rate, farmers are now encouraged to plant more palay that will consequently improve the country’s production of this staple commodity.

For the previous year, DA recorded a boosted palay output due to the government’s intervention measures, such as promoting the use of early maturing seed varieties particularly in the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan), Western Visayas and the Caraga Region; and the timely release of irrigation water in Cagayan Valley and MIMAROPA region.

In April of last year, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has approved the increase in NFA’s support price for palay.

The government also granted additional P1, 800 as fertilizer incentive for every 50 bags of 50 kilogram of palay sold to the agency which the farmers can use in buying their fertilizer requirement to increase rice production.

Navarro also assured that NFA will continue to make available the P18.25 per kilogram rice through the “Tindahan Natin” (TN) to families with Family Access Card issued by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the National Capital Region, as well as those included in the Rice Allocation Ledger of the TN outlets in the provinces.

This will be in addition to the P25 and P35 per kilogram rice available in all other outlets for subsidized government rice including the institutionalized “Bigasan sa Palengke” rolling stores and accredited rice retailers.

"We are always ready to intervene in the market to preempt any unwarranted increase in the price of rice and to ensure that the basic staple is within the reach of every Filipino,” Navarro was cited saying. – Rhia de Pablo