Extension of importation program sought

Farmers’ cooperatives are appealing to the National Food Authority (NFA) to grant an extension of the Farmers as Importers Program (FIP) and Farmers as Distributors Program (FDP) until Dec. 30.

Silvestre Bonto, president of the National Confederation of Farmers’ Cooperatives and Associations, said he believes that NFA Administrator Arthur Yap and NFA Council chairman Angelito Sarmiento are sincere in their desire to give more farmers the opportunity to participate in the two programs, as ordered by President Arroyo last February.

The confederation, which has 700 farmers’ cooperatives as members, lauded Yap, Sarmiento and Raul Montemayor, a farmers’ representative in the NFA Council, for their efforts to alleviate the plight of farmers through the two programs.

"We are truly grateful because we have been given the chance to become importers and distributors," they said.

Bonto, however, appealed to Yap and Sarmiento not only to grant the extension, but to allow the FIP and FDP to stay, saying that these programs helped generate revenue for the government and answer the country’s need for rice for the past seven months.

The FIP allowed farmers’ cooperatives to import rice from Vietnam and Thailand, and the FDP gave these cooperatives the chance to distribute imported rice in local markets.

Local farmers, who have been left behind by these programs, are proposing that the NFA allocate a subsidized budget to enable them to produce and market high-quality grains instead of spending on the government’s rice importation program.

"The NFA can realign its budget for rice importation to subsidized programs for local farmers should NFA completely turn over the rice importation program to farmers’ cooperatives," they said.