GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/1 Sept) – The National Food Authority (NFA) in South Cotabato has allocated an initial P5 million for its palay procurement program in the upcoming palay harvest season in the area.
Angelina Lucena, NFA-South Cotabato assistant provincial manager, said Wednesday the allocation is part of the agency’s massive palay buying scheme for the harvest season, which is expected to begin by the second weeks of this month.
“That’s just our initial allocation. We can still request for additional funding from our central office later on when the need arises,” she said.
Aside from such allocation, she said they have set aside a portion of their regular funds for palay procurement.
Lucena said they initially prepared their existing warehouses in this city and in Surallah and Norala towns for the foreseen influx of palay deliveries from local farmers when the harvest season later peaks.
She said they designated the NFA’s warehouses in Koronadal City, which have a listed combined capacity of 118,000 metric tons (MT), as the main buying station.
Aside from the existing warehouses, Lucena said they are also preparing for the opening of four more NFA buying stations to accommodate more palay harvests.
She said they will designate at least two personnel for each of the four new buying stations, which will mainly accommodate the harvests of the major palay-producing areas in the province’s upper valley area.
The upper valley area comprises the agro-industrial municipalities of Tboli, Lake Sebu, Banga, Norala, Santo Niño and Surallah.
The NFA is currently buying palay at P17.70 per kilo for members of accredited farmers’ groups, associations and cooperatives.
It also accepts deliveries from individual farmers at a buying price of P17.40 per kilo.
The agency earlier announced the allocation of P20.4 billion for its domestic palay procurement program for this year.
As of July, NFA said it has already procured 236,755 MT of palay in various parts of the country.
NFA officials earlier said it is targeting to buy some 584,300 MT of palay from farmers this year. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)
