THE Philippine government, through the National Food Authority (NFA), will buy palay from farmers at P17 per kilogram until December this year.

The move is part of the efforts of the government to beef up the NFA’s stocks, as well as encourage farmers to plant more.

“Maintaining the current support price will serve as an incentive for farmers to grow more palay and help them cope with the continuous rise in the cost of production,” said Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

Last October the government increased support price for palay by P1 per kg to encourage farmers to produce more palay.

With the spike in the price of rice in the world market, and with commercial millers buying palay at higher rates, the Philippine government was forced to increase its buying price to P17 per kg.

Historically, the NFA is only able to buy some 1 percent of palay produced by rice farmers. Farmers have long been complaining of the stringent standards being observed by the food agency in buying palay.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture (DA) reported that as of April 15, harvesting for the dry season has been done in about 65 percent of the areas planted, totaling 1.87 million hectares, with production reaching 4.9 million metric tons (MMT) from all over the country.

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) said the DA appears to be on track in achieving its project harvest of 7.1 MMT of palay this dry season.

By this time, the BAS projected that harvests may have already reached 6.1 MMT, or 87 percent of the forecasted output.

The DA also said the country’s rice stocks are already assured as the balance of 700,000 metric tons of rice imports earlier contracted by the NFA will arrive by June.

THE Philippine government, through the National Food Authority (NFA), will buy palay from farmers at P17 per kilogram until December this year.

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