In support of the National Food Authority’s (NFA) palay-procurement program, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has turned over two mechanical dryers to be set up in NFA warehouses in Region 6.
The NFA said in a statement that each mechanical dryer has 120 bags of capacity per batch, complete with prime mover, three-phase generating set and all attachments.
The mechanical dryers may be used for free by farmers provided they sell part of their palay produce to the NFA. The farmers will also receive additional drying incentives of P0.20 per kilogram.
During the turnover of the agricultural machinery held at the DA Regional Office in Jaro, Iloilo, recently, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said farmer cooperatives and associations that sell at least 2,000 metric tons of palay to NFA will be granted farm machines and equipment as another incentive.
Aside from this, the cooperatives or farmer associations who bring their palay produce to NFA will also be given priority to avail themselves of the low-interest bearing Production Loan Easy Access. This is a loan program being provided by the DA to qualified farmer cooperatives and farmer associations.
The NFA assured continuous support to farmers by intensifying its local palay-procurement programs. Regional Director for Region 6 Angel Imperial Jr. said the NFA buys palay from farmers at P17 per kg with applicable incentives of up to P0.70 per kg.
The food agency buys palay from farmers to beef up its stockpile, part of which is sold to the public at a lower price.
At present, the NFA is serving a total of 529,942 rice outlets across the country. These include 225,399 accredited outlets inside market; 54,971 accredited outlets outside market; 202,450 Institutionalized Bigasan sa Palengke; 26,810 Bigasang Bayan Outlets; 2,088 Barangay Bagsakan; 1,793 Bigasan sa Parokya Outlet; and 16,431 other outlets.
These outlets are supplemented by rolling stores manned by NFA personnel and deployed to remote areas without accredited retailers, public market or NFA rice outlet.
The NFA has a total of 13,636 accredited rice retailers selling NFA rice at P27 and P32 per kg in these outlets. Recently, the NFA also partnered with the DA for the sale of NFA rice in Barangay Food Terminals in some provinces across the country.
From January to July 25 this year, the NFA has already distributed a total of 3,089,984 bags of rice through its various outlets across the country. For the month of July alone, total distribution has already reached 786,639 bags.
“Even before the arrival of our imported rice in June, NFA personnel have been instructed to make the low-priced NFA rice immediately available to the markets. Our regular patrons have been waiting for it since March. At present, we have already established our presence in all corners of the country,” NFA administrator Jason Aquino said.