1 million cavans of palay procured from Central Luzon farmers

MALOLOS, Philippines — The National Food Authority (NFA) has procured one million cavans of palay from farmers in Central Luzon.

Piolito Santos, NFA regional director for Central Luzon, confirmed to The STAR that their agency has so far bought from farmers in the region one million out of their target 1.6 million cavans procurement for the months of July to December this year.

He said the NFA would still continue to buy the produce of the farmers in the region even if it has reached its quota.

Santos added that the NFA has deployed a total of 77 buying stations throughout Central Luzon – considered as the country’s rice granary – with 33 established in Nueva Ecija, 15 in Tarlac, 10 in Bulacan, five each for Aurora, Bataan and Pampanga and four in Zambales.

He also revealed that the NFA has 46 warehouses in the region and has leased another 31 warehouses for its palay procurement program.

The milling of the palay previously procured from farmers already went through the test milling process. Regular milling is on hold pending the approval for rice issuance to the Department of Social Welfare’s 4Ps program, Santos explained.

He added that massive regular milling for the earlier procured unhusked rice is expected to commence by the end of this month until February next year.