Probe fake coops selling palay to NFA

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol has ordered an investigation of fake cooperatives used by some traders to sell palay to the National Food Authority (NFA).

Piñol said the probe should also determine the involvement of NFA officials.

“Farmer leaders are claiming that inactive cooperatives are being used by some traders... to sell paddy rice to the NFA, which is buying farmers’ produce at a higher price,” he said in a letter to NFA officer-in-charge Tomas Escarez.

“Traders in Central Luzon are buying fresh palay at P15 per kilo while the NFA is buying clean and dry palay at P17 with an incentive of P3.70 per kilo for cooperatives and associations,” Piñol said.

The legitimacy of farmers’ cooperatives should be validated in coordination with the municipal agriculture office, Piñol, who is concurrent chairman of the NFA Council, said.

“The NFA will purge the list of coops allowed to deliver to the NFA by checking the history of their activities and flagging inactive coops that were suddenly resurrected,” he said.

Piñol said erring NFA employees would be administratively held liable, noting that under the Rice Tariffication Law, the NFA should buy palay only from local farmers.

The Department of Agriculture said the NFA has breached the two million mark as the summer harvest season starts to peak.

2.12-M palay bags

Initial reports from NFA field offices show that the grains agency has procured a total of 2.12 million bags of palay since January.

At least 845,891 bags were bought last month, almost two-thirds of the 1.26 million the NFA procured in the first quarter of this year.

The NFA’s procurement activities are revitalized by its new buying price, which increased from P17.70 to P20.70 per kilo for clean and dry palay.

The agency is shifting its focus on more aggressive palay procurement after the signing of the Rice Tariffication Law.

The NFA is buying palay at an average of 73,233 bags per day.

It also implemented an additional P3 per kilo buffer-stocking incentive last October, increasing the agency’s maximum buying price of palay from P17.40 per kilo for individual farmers and P17.70 per kilo for members of farmer cooperatives to P20.40 and P20.70, respectively.

The Philippine Statistics Authority said the average farm gate price of palay continues to drop at P18.87 per kilo.

In some areas, farmers are complaining that the farm gate price of palay is as low as P14 per kilo.