Farmers still able to sell storm-damaged palay

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Stocks of storm-damaged palay in Central Luzon have been unloaded to markets.

But farmers sold to the National Food Authority (NFA) stations in Bulacan and Tarlac at least 5,000 out of 208,000 bags of palay that were salvaged from farms ravaged by Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel.”

The farmers decided to sell the rest of the stocks to private traders who bought a kilogram of palay at P13 to P17.70, according to NFA Central Luzon chief Amadeo de Guzman.

In contrast, the NFA on Nov. 2 was buying at P11, P9 and P7 per kilo, depending on the extent of damage to the stock.

De Guzman said the NFA was unable to match the buying prices offered by private traders because it would require the permission of an inter-agency task force.

“We do understand the farmers. Why sell to the NFA at these prices when private traders buy at higher prices. Ours are support prices only,” De Guzman said in a telephone interview.

In the local market, typhoon-damaged palay is referred to as “tsokolate” because mud covers these grains. These stocks survived Pedring, which battered the region starting Sept. 26, and Quiel, which dumped more rains on Oct. 1.

Palay sold to the NFA represented 0.03 percent of the stocks that the agency intended to buy, as announced by NFA Central Luzon assistant regional director, Gerry Imperial, on Oct. 27.

The NFA allocated P99 million to buy the 208,000 bags of palay (each bag weighs 50 kilograms), but Imperial said stocks with 80-percent damage would not be purchased.

De Guzman said the NFA has been buying damaged grains to help farmers recover their capital.

He allayed fears of a rice shortage due to the typhoons, by declaring that the NFA has piled up 1.5 million bags of grains and 1.49 million bags of palay for milling. These stocks are expected to last for 38 days.

“The NFA’s purchases are continuing. We won’t run short of stocks,” De Guzman said.

For 2011, NFA bought from local farmers 297,000 bags of rice, which represented 19 percent of this year’s target.

Last week, almost 9,000 bags of certified seeds were distributed to farmers in Central Luzon, according to Andrew Villacorta, Central Luzon director of the Department of Agriculture.

At least 50,000 bags are still stacked in seed laboratories and are due for distribution in the next few weeks.

Seed subsidy in the region has amounted to P135 million. The DA target is more than P200 million, Villacorta said.

Nueva Ecija’s rice production was down by 60 percent, according to the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), citing a report from provincial agriculturist Serafin Santos.

The PIA said the province lost 300,923.35 metric tons in expected harvest to the typhoons. At P12 per kg, the lost crops would have been worth P3.63 billion. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon