The National Food Authority (NFA) has allotted P110 million to purchase palay or unmilled rice from farmers in the province of Iloilo for the month of September.
The fund for NFA’s Palay Procurement Program is estimated to buy 130 thousand sacks of palay.
NFA-Iloilo information officer Pat Espinosa, in an interview over radio station Radyo Pilipinas-Iloilo, encouraged farmers to take advantage of their higher buying prices and incentives.
The agency currently buys palay at P20.70 per kilogram for members of farmer cooperatives or organizations, and P20.40 per kilogram for individual farmers.
The prices include incentives for drying and delivery, for farmer cooperatives
Espinosa said they have buying stations in Jaro, Iloilo City as well as in the towns of San Dionisio, Dumangas, and Pototan.
The NFA-Iloilo targets to buy 540 thousand sacks of rice for the last quarter of 2019.
Farmers, who are among the poorest in the country, have been suffering from income losses due to the continued decline in palay prices.
Several farmers complained that prices of palay have plummeted to P7 to P11 per kilogram. They blame this to the implementation of the rice tariffication law.IMT
