PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — The National Food Authority (NFA) is temporarily suspending its rice distribution to accredited outlets here and in other municipalities in the province to stock up reserves for emergency use during calamities.
Assistant NFA Provincial Manager Cesar Gonda said the interruption in the distribution started early January this year to generate buffer stocks for any crisis that would call for relief efforts.
But Gonda was quick to dismiss fears that the suspension would affect rice supply in the province despite admitting that it was rather limited compared to the 2012 and 2014 supplies.
“Palawan being a rice production area itself has enough supply of rice, and most of the people have sufficient household stocks of rice,” he said.
Leonardo Enriquez of Agricultural Production Coordinating Office-Palawan South said the province had attained 150 percent sufficiency level of rice production.
The entire province of Palawan has over 50,000 hectares of land that can be fully planted with rice. A large bulk of the area was located in the southern town of Narra, considered as a major rice producing town, Enriquez said.
There was an average yield of 60 bags to 75 bags per hectare, he said.
Though the province’s average yield is only 3.8 tons per hectare, which is below the national average of 4.5 to 5 tons per hectare, there is surplus since the rice being produced is more than enough to feed its population.
“Sobra-sobra ang ating bigas, sa katunayan ay dinadala pa sa Manila at sa ibang lugar (We are producing more than enough, and as a matter of fact, we are bringing supplies to Manila and other areas),” he said.
In the Port of Taytay, rice is shipped to Bulalacao Port in Mindoro province.
“Ang ating gobyerno ay patuloy na sinusulong ang 100 percent rice sufficiency, at tayo dito sa Palawan ay sapat na sapat ang ating bigas (Our government is continuously promoting 100 percent rice sufficiency, and in Palawan, we have more than enough rice supply),” Enriquez declared.
Gonda assured they will resume the distribution to outlets and retailers when the supply is stabilized, which is expected to rise during harvest season this last week of January until April 2018. (PNA)
