NFA: Palay buying program only for registered farmers

MANILA, Philippines — State-run National Food Authority (NFA) will only buy from registered palay farmers to prevent traders from taking advantage of the grains agency’s higher buying price and ensure that farmers indeed benefit from such a scheme.

The new rule was recently approved by the NFA Council, the agency’s policy-making body, chaired by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the change in the NFA’s palay buying policy is in line with the orders of President Marcos to ensure that rice farmers benefit from the grains agency’s higher buying price to boost their income.

Under the rules, only verified farmers listed either in the government’s Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture or certified by the local government units can sell palay to the NFA.

Furthermore, each NFA branch has been instructed to submit a monthly list of who sold palay and how much to them. The lists will be posted on bulletin boards of each NFA branch as well as on the grains agency’s official Facebook account subject to privacy laws.

The NFA will also set up an area in its warehouse where farmers’ groups can watch its palay buying process.

“This is to ensure that only legitimate farmers are selling to NFA and to address the allegations that traders are the ones benefiting from NFA,” said NFA administrator Larry Lacson.

“These new rules will open our palay procurement to public scrutiny,” he added.

The DA said NFA staff would check if the farmer really has palay stored before he makes a delivery to the grains agency. After the delivery, the NFA staff will also ensure that it was the same farmer who completed the sale.

“Farmers can only sell up to the limit listed in their RSBSA records or in a list from the local government. NFA branches will also keep an eye on farmers who try to sell in areas where they aren’t registered,” the DA said.

There have been reports and claims from the ground that only traders benefit from the higher buying price of the NFA since they have the logistical capacity, including drying and transport, industry sources said.

Usually, traders buy palay from farmers, especially those who lack the transport and drying capacities to directly sell to the NFA, at a lower price and consolidate the harvest to be eventually sold to the NFA to take advantage of the agency’s higher buying price, the sources added.

At present, the NFA buys fresh or wet palay at a price range of P17 to P23 per kilo depending on the area and market conditions, while it purchases clean and dry palay between P23 and P30 per kilo.

However, Lacson said these are just mere “perceptions” from the industry, pointing out that the NFA did not find a single trader selling to the grains agency.

Even before the changes in rules, the NFA has been vetting the sellers of palay, noting that all of them were farmers either registered in the RSBA or certified by the LGUs.

Lacson said the NFA would also implement a 100-bag or five metric ton limit on the amount of palay that individual farmers can sell to the agency every season so that more farmers can benefit from its higher buying price. This means a farmer can only sell a maximum of 200 bags of palay to the NFA every year.