The National Food Authority (NFA) said it buys unhusked rice only from legitimate farmers and not from fake farmers’ cooperatives that serve as front for unscrupulous traders who want to take advantage of the food agency’s higher buying price.
The NFA made the statement after Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol ordered NFA OIC Administrator Tomas R. Escarez to weed out fake cooperatives and to prosecute erring government workers.
Piñol gave the directive after he saw social-media posts of farmer leaders in Central Luzon who claimed that “inactive” cooperatives are being used by traders to sell palay to the NFA to take advantage of its P20.70 per kilogram buying price.
Escarez said he would meet with NFA Region 3 officials to look into allegations of fake cooperatives selling palay.
He has also directed the NFA Regional Office in Central Luzon to conduct an immediate revalidation of individual farmers and master passbooks of cooperatives selling palay to the food agency.
“We will not allow any nefarious activities by fake farmer groups or cooperatives to muddle our procurement operations,” Escarez said in a statement.
He said the NFA monitors the legitimacy of
farmers selling their produce to the passbooks given to them. For one, farmer
organizations need to secure a master passbook prior to selling palay to the
NFA.
“Walk-in” farmers could still sell palay to NFA but they would be required to fill-up a farmer’s information sheet to properly record and monitor future transactions with the NFA.
“First of all, farmers need to secure a passbook from the NFA before they can sell to the agency,” Escarez said.
“Requirements for securing this passbook include a filled out Farmer’s Information Sheet with identification picture, and certification from the Barangay Captain, Municipal Agriculturist, Municipal Agrarian Officer or National Irrigation Administration where his farm is located,” he added.
Prices
The average farm-gate price of unhusked rice in the third week of April has declined by 10.85 percent year-on-year to P18.48 per kilogram (kg), the lowest since the last week of December 2018, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA reported that the latest average quotation for palay was P2.25 lower than the P20.73 per kg recorded in the same period last year.
The PSA also noted that the average farm-gate price was 1.12 percent lower than the P18.48 per kg recorded in the second week of April.
Results of the PSA survey indicated that the lowest farm-gate price during April 17 to 23 was recorded in Caraga region at P16.33 per kg. The highest average palay quotation was observed in Central Visayas region at P21.96per kilogram, PSA data showed.
Image credits: Laila Austria