The policymaking body of the National Food Authority (NFA) has rejected lawmakers’ proposal to increase the agency’s buying price for paddy rice (palay) so it could immediately replenish its rice stock.
During a hearing in the Senate on Thursday, Development Bank of the Philippines director Teodoro M. Jumamil, a member of the NFA Council, said the body rejected the proposal because increasing the buying price for paddy rice would result in additional spending that would amount to P800 million.
Farmers’ incentives
Jumamil said the council decided to provide additional incentives to local farmers to entice them to sell their produce to the NFA.
“For every individual farmer who will sell 2 kilos of their palay to the NFA, they will be given a coupon that will entitle them to 1 kilo of rice. This will help them a lot since 39 percent of their total budget go to rice,” he said.
“For farmer cooperatives and organizations, for every 1 ton of palay they will sell to the NFA, we will also give them 1-ton worth of import quota. Whatever is their opportunity loss, they can easily recover through the import quota,” Jumamil added.
Problem at harvest time
Sen. Cynthia Villar, head of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, said the plan might solve the problem of poor farmers who could not afford their own harvest.
She said, however, that the NFA must be quick in procuring paddy rice and must not wait for the farmers to come to the agency.
But NFA Administrator Jason Aquino said that even with the additional incentives and the availability of rice in the market, farmers were unwilling to sell their produce to the agency because rice traders buy their paddy rice at a higher price.
The NFA’s buying price is P17 per kilogram.