BALITANG BUKID

NOGRALES WELCOMES PIÑOL’S

PALAY PRICE PROCUREMENT PLAN

The chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on appropriations welcomed moves by the National Food Authority Council to improve its local palay procurement efforts by raising the buying price of palay to P20.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, the panel’s chairman, said the NFA Council’s plans to provide incentives to rice farmers by increasing the buying price of palay would allow it to purchase palay from local farmers and shore up stocks of NFA rice.

Nograles’ statement was in response to the statement of Agriculture Secretary and NFA Council Chairman Emmanuel Piñol that the NFA Council had approved the provision of incentives to rice farmers selling their palay to the government.

“The buying price of NFA remains at 17 pesos per kilo, but we will come up with incentives that when quantified would reach 20 pesos per kilo,” Piñol said in a news briefing following his first meeting with the NFA Council.

Piñol announced that the NFA would give transportation incentives to farmers who would sell their crops to the government. They will likewise be entitled to receive farm equipment.

These developments are proof, Nograles said, that President Duterte made the right move by giving jurisdiction of the NFA to the DA via Executive Order 62.

Signed on Sept. 17, EO 62 also reorganizes the NFA Council, designating the secretary of Agriculture as NFA chairman.

“I agree that the NFA should be returned to the DA so that the needs of farmers can be addressed. Our farmers have many needs, and the NFA is one of the agencies involved in providing support to our farmers,” he added.

Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, meanwhile, said he wants to ensure that the poor get priority in the distribution of affordable NFA rice, after the government moved to make the grain available in supermarkets.

He said the intention of the government to expand the outlets for NFA rice was good.

“But because the supply of NFA rice is limited and commercial rice costs so much, we need to make sure the poor, who eat only once or twice a day, benefit from these moves,” he said in Filipino. (From Manila Standard) — with Emmanuel Pinol and Karlo Nograles.