/PNA
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan – The National Food Authority (NFA) is determined to purchase 5,000 bags of palay (unhusked rice) from Palawan farmers, even though uncooperative weather and power interruptions have affected their rice production, an official said.
The volume is part of the projected 15,000 initial number of palay bags that the agency plans to buy from farmers next month, NFA-Palawan assistant manager Nerilyn Conde said Friday afternoon.
Conde said they hope that the weather condition would improve so the number of palay bags the NFA intends to buy would not decrease from 5,000 to 3,000.
“If the farmers’ palay is wet, we won’t be able to accommodate all the palay in the mechanical dryer since drying takes more than one day. Then, we have other constraints. In case of a brownout, our mechanical dryer would not operate. We have a solar dryer but we cannot use it during rainy days,” she said.
The 5,000 bags will come from the towns of Brooke’s Point, Bataraza, Narra, Rizal, Roxas, and Puerto Princesa City, Conde said, noting that from October to November, the NFA purchased 1,843 bags of palay from the entire province, including the Calamian Islands Group.
She pointed out that Narra sold the most number of palay bags with 639, followed by Rizal with 528, Brooke’s Point with 411, Puerto Princesa City with 118, and Coron with 45.
They were bought after the PHP3-buffer stocking incentive was approved by Agriculture Sec. Emmanuel Piñol last October 12. The incentive gave local NFA offices leverage to compete with the gate prices of commercial traders.
However, Conde said commercial rice traders have also increased their buying price from PHP23 to PHP24 for clean and dry palay.
“This November, we have not bought much rice since we are still conducting an info campaign. Traders are ahead of us since their trucks have been waiting for the farmers’ harvest,” she said.
However, she noted a recent decrease in commercial traders’ palay procurement due to the implementation of the suggested retail price for rice in the market.
