East Visayas NFA surpasses rice procurement target in Q-1 by 133%

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
March 22, 2013

PAWING, Palo, Leyte – The National Food Authority in Eastern Visayas continues its aggressive palay procurement in order to augment domestic inventory of the basic staple commodity.

NFA Regional Manager Vilma H. Zarraga informed that for the first quarter of this year, the Agency had a total procurement of 13,979 bags region wide.

“This is a Two Hundred Thirty Three percent (233%) accomplishment since the Agency targeted Six Thousand (6,000) bags only for the first quarter,“ she said.

Director Zarraga further informed that as of press time, the Agency has already disbursed a total of Eight Million Ninety Six Thousand Seven Hundred Forty Nine Pesos (P8,096,749.0) from its Cereal Procurement Fund (CPF), the financial source of NFA’s palay buying operations.

“Even if we have surpassed our targets in the first quarter, we are still aiming to procure more palay in the succeeding days and months,” Director Zarraga underscored.

Under NFA’s palay procurement program, the Agency buys palay at the current government support price of Seventeen Pesos (P17.00) per kilogram, clean and dry or those with fourteen percent (14%) moisture content and “Purity A” level.

Palay deliveries falling below this specification can also be accommodated subject to buying price adjustments computed in accordance with the current NFA Equivalent Net Weight (ENW) table, Manager Zarraga said.

On top of the basic support price, additional incentives are given to the palay farmers. For every kilogram of palay sold to the Agency, there is an additional Twenty centavos (P.20) called drying incentive and a delivery incentive fee of Twenty Centavos (P.20) or Ten Pesos (P10.00) per kilogram based on the distance from the farm to the NFA buying station within zero (0) to ten (10) kilometers. This delivery incentive escalates as the distance of the farm to NFA buying station also increases.

Moreover, farmer groups or cooperatives gain an add-on of Thirty Centavos (P.30) per kilogram of palay sold to the Agency as their Cooperative Development Incentive Fee (CDIF). The accumulated CDIF can be used by the concerned farmer cooperative to acquire post-harvest facilities.

Director Zarraga is encouraging all palay farmers and farmer cooperatives to sell their produce to the Agency. She said that the Agency has simplified its requirements for its palay procurement program.

The farmers’ passbooks is now free of charge with photo provided by NFA. Moreover, walk-in farmers now deliver a maximum of Two Hundred (200) bags.

“One of the factors that contributed to the increase in NFA’s procurement accomplishment is the simplification of requirement,” Manager Zarraga added.

“We also conducted Ugnayan or advocacy prior to harvest and closely coordinated with the Local Government Units (LGU), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), farmers groups and barangay officials.

Moreover, the Agency undertook close monitoring of palay harvests, timely positioned the necessary logistics and opened buying stations in strategic production areas.