NFA: rice farmers prefers to sell farm produce to traders

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?&sid=6&pfn=750575&arch=1&go=Go&search_arch=Pagadian%20City,%20Zamboanga%20del%20Sur&andor=and&mdte_arch=4&ddte_arch=0&ydte_arch=2015

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, April 6 (PNA) – The National Food Authority (NFA) has assured the public there is sufficient stocks of rice for this province.

Nieves Toca, Pagadian City-Zamboanga del Sur NFA manager, made this assurance Monday although the agency managed to attain 4.44 percent accomplishment in the agency’s palay purchase program for the first quarter of this year.

Toca said they only managed to purchase 666 bags of palay which is way below the target of 15,000 bags from January to March this year.

Toca said they have rice stocks consisting of 119,654 bags of imported rice, 8,341 bags of locally-produced rice and 10,876 bags of palay.

“Our stocks are estimated to last for 26 days in case of emergency based on the daily consumption of 5,180 bags of this province,” she said.

She said one of the reasons why they failed to meet the target of the palay purchase program was due to the reduced harvest of the local farmers who were affected by the dry spell.

She said the other reason is that the local farmers chose to sell their rice produce to traders who pay higher price than the NFA.

She said the purchasing price of palay of the NFA is Php17 per kilo while rice traders pay up to Php19 a kilo. (PNA)
FPV/RCK/TPGJR/HIROHITO D. CADION