Alcala studying higher palay price

Published by rudy Date posted on February 20, 2012

The Agriculture Department will take appropriate measures and convene the National Food Authority council to address the demand of peasant groups to increase the food agency’s buying price of palay from P17 to P20 a kilo.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala invited the leaders of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Amihan, and Anakpawis Partylist to attend the next board meeting of the NFA council before the end of February to discuss the increase in NFA’s palay procurement.

The peasant groups claimed that “during harvest, merchants, rice traders, and their agents only buy palay at a measly P10 to P12 a kilo, and far cheaper during harvest in the rainy season.”

The groups said this was because the NFA was not directly buying palay at the farmgate, and that “farmers were having a hard time selling palay to the grain agency due to bureaucracy and stringent requirements.”

Alcala said the situation needs immediate action by the NFA council before the end of the month.

The NFA is mandated to buy palay at the optimum rate of P17.00 to P17.70 per kilo, depending on palay quality and moisture content, which influences the buying price of traders. Some traders, however, were reportedly buying rice from farmers at only P10 to P12 a kilo of palay.

Alcala asked the farmer-leaders to identify the particular communities or towns that were not being served by the NFA buying stations. He said that to serve more farmers, the state-owned food agency will deploy more mobile palay buying stations, and establish additional drying facilities using a P120-million fund.

Agriculture assistant secretary and concurrent rice program coordinator Dante Delima also said the government plans to increase the volume of palay procurement in succeeding years.

Delima, meanwhile, said the government could not give subsidies for pesticides and fertilizers at this time, but instead encouraged farmers to use indigenous and organic farm inputs to reduce their dependence on imported chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

He also asked the farmer-leaders to participate in the Sikap-Saka program, a credit program for individual farmers in partnership with the Land Bank of the Philippines. It is being piloted in four major rice-producing areas of Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo and North Cotabato.

The credit facility may be expanded to include more provinces, where farmers can apply for production loans for farm inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers, Delima said. –Othel V. Campos, Manila Standard Today

July 2025

Nutrition Month
“Give us much more than P50 increase
for proper nutrition!”

Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.

Accept National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar.  Reject Military!

#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideosturesVideos

Time to support & empower survivors. Time to spark a global conversation. Time for #GenerationEquality to #orangetheworld!

July


3 July – International Day of Cooperatives
3 Ju
ly – International Plastic Bag Free Day
 
5 July –
World Youth Skills Day 
7 July – Global Forgiveness Day
11 July – World Population Day 
17 July – World Day for
International Justice
28 July – World Nature Conservation Day
30 July – World Day against Trafficking in Persons 


Monthly Observances:

Schools Safety Month

Nutrition Month
National Disaster Consciousness Month

Weekly Observances:

Week 2: Cultural Communities Week
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise
Development Week
Week 3: National Science and
Technology Week
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week
July 1-7:
National Culture Consciousness Week
July 13-19:
Philippines Business Week
Week ending last Saturday of July:
Arbor Week

 

Daily Observances:

First Saturday of July:
International Cooperative Day
in the Philippines

Categories

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.