NFA comes to the rescue of Tabuk farmers

Tabuk City, Kalinga - With the price of dry palay now at P15.00 per kilo from as high as P18.50 two weeks ago and threatening to sink even lower, the National Food Authority (NFA) here has some to the rescue of local farmers. At least for the moment.

Assistant Provincial Manager Enrique Baliang said that starting April 23, they are buying at the price ordered by Malacanang which is P17.00 per kilo for clean and dry palay.

Baliang also said that this time, they are relaxing the purchasing regulations of the NFA. Farmers with passbooks could sell 100 bags per hectare of their registered landholding and more importantly, walk-in farmers with no passbooks could sell 50 bags each.

Baliang said that they have received an initial purchasing fund of P5M and that the same will be replenished when exhausted but the problem, according to him, is the P17.00 support price is only good until the end of May.

"We do not know what will happen after the end of May. The danger then is the private traders might exploit the situation when we are no longer able to buy at P17.00," Baliang admitted.

Baliang admitted this is the first time in a long time they are buying even as he admitted that in the specific case of Kalinga, they have badly fallen short of the mandate of the charter of the agency to purchase 10 percent of the rice harvest. "It was only in 1979 when we hit the target but after that, it was good if we were able to buy five percent of the harvest," Baliang said.

Regarding the rice stocks of the provincial NFA, Baliang said that they are giving allocations of five bags a week for each of their 67 outlets and that with more NFA rice supplies arriving in the province, the share of each outlet might be increased to 10 bags a week by the end of April.

As of press time, with only a few of the local traders buying, the price of fresh palay in the market here is down to P12.00 - P13.00 per kilo from the unprecedented P17.00 per kilo two weeks ago.

Daryl Estranero of the Universal Grains Center in Bulanao Norte, this city, who is buying only dry palay at the price of P15.00 per kilo as of press time is apprehensive that the prices will continue to go down until it reaches the normal level which, according to him, is P9.40 to P9.70 for fresh and P12.00 for dry. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

Some rice traders in Tabuk City stop buying palay

Tabuk City, Kalinga - As the prices of rice in the country continue their upward climb, the prices of palay (unhusked rice) in this city have started a steep downward trend dashing the hopes of farmers for a higher income this cropping season.

From all time highs of P17.00 per kilo for fresh palay and PI 8.50 per kilo for dried palay last week, the prices have gone down to P15.00 and P16.50 for fresh and dried palay, respectively, as of this writing.

Worse, half of the local rice traders have stopped buying palay starting early this week alleging the instability of palay prices which they claimed started to manifest starting last weekend when nearly everyday the price in the market went down by as much as P0.50 per kilo a day.

Maxell Co of the Maxell Rice Mill in Magsaysay, this city, alleged that according to their sources, as of press time the price of fresh palay in Isabela where they sell their stocks is PI5.00 per kilo.

"The stocks in my warehouse were bought at P16.00 per kilo so I will be in trouble if the price keeps going down," Co said adding that from what he heard, the downtrend of palay prices in the market is due to the coming into play of the law of supply and demand because of the simultaneous harvest in many places in the country.

Daryl Estranero of the Universal Grains Center in Bulanao Norte, this city, on the other hand claimed that the price in Isabela plunged from P16.00 to P14.50 on April 15 when it rained there so he had no choice but to stop buying.

He also said that one other reason he has stopped buying is that with a large volume of palay already being harvested in many parts of Isabela, the big time rice traders there have tightened their classification procedures.

"We stopped buying because the price is unstable. We thought that the price would stabilize at the new level but we were wrong. It is possible that the price will go back to normal which is P9.40 to P9.70 for fresh and P12.00 for dry," Estranero said.

Regarding the accusation of farmers that local traders are cartelized, Estranero said that they have an organization but the purpose is to maintain uniformity of prices among them and not to take advantage of farmers.

He also denied the speculation of farmers that the local palay traders agreed among themselves to stop buying as a prelude to bringing down the prices declaring that they are just following the current prices in the market because if they don't, they will incur losses.

As for the allegation that local palay traders are preventing outside buyers to deal directly with farmers, Estranero said that local traders pay their taxes and .that there are many farmers who run to the buying stations for their farm inputs.

"There is no problem if outside buyers go directly to the farmers except that it is to us the farmers come to when they are in need," Estranero said.

He challenged the complaining farmers to just put up their own trading business and see if they could take the pressure of the volatile palay trading. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

Agencies pushing unoy rice and DENR thresh out differences

Tabuk City, Kalinga - Obviously there is a conflict between the DENR on one hand and the Department of Agriculture and LGUs here on the other hand due to the efforts of the latter to promote the production of unoy (indigenous Kalinga rice) in the province.

Slash and bum farming or kaingin is a no no to the DENR. On the other hand, in light of the growing demand for unoy rice in the local and international markets, it does not seem to be an issue to the DA and the LGUs that a portion of the unoy produced in the province comes from kaingins.

The two parties had a chance to confront the issue during the training on upland rice-based farming system conducted by the DA, the Agricultural Training Institute and Tabuk City here on February 7 and 8, 2008 which some 50 kaingineros from the upland barangays of this city attended.

With both sides admitting that kaingin is a part of the local culture and as such, would be hard to stop, they agreed to work out a system whereby the harmful effects of the fanning practice will be mitigated.

Peter Warner Manadao, information officer of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) proposed that the farmers identify areas for kaingin purposes and cultivate these on rotation basis to allow for the process of fallowing to take place.

"These areas for kaingin making should preferably be on lower elevations meaning below 1,000 meters above sea level because forests above 1,000 meters are sources of water, serve as habitat for remaining wildlife and help check climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide," Manadao told the kaingineros.

Manadao also called on the rice research agencies of the government to develop a rice variety adapted to lowland farming but with the same quality, glutinousness and yield as that of upland rice "so that we need not touch the forest."

On the other hand, Felicitas Balmores, Tabuk City unoy rice program coordinator, is suggesting an upland rice farming technique calling for the planting of hedgerows and tiger grass to serve as buffer against soil erosion and likewise the planting of fruit trees and coffee in the steep portions of the kaingin.

Both sides and also the kaingineros who attended the training agreed that the watersheds should not be touched at all.

Kalinga Unoy Farmers' Association president Ramon Ambatali agrees with Manadao that areas identified for kaingin purposes should be cultivated in a cycle so that fast growing trees such as paper trees could be planted in the portions first cultivated and harvested in the next round.

He also recommends that the government provides the seedlings and the technology for the planting of fruit trees in areas which have lost their fertility and no longer suited for kaingin farming.

Ambatali sees a bright future for unoy rice because of the simplicity of the technology required and also the rising price of the commodity.

Ambatali who is devoting a one-hectare kaingin to the mimis, one of the two unoy varieties exported to Montana, USA, claimed that unoy rice does not need modern farm inputs and could be grown with just the old indigenous farming techniques.

According to Ambatali, a kilo of any unoy variety sells at as high as P50.00 - 60.00 in the local market which is more than double the price of the new rice varieties. ** By Estamslao Albano Jr.

NFA denies there is rice shortage in Kalinga

Tabuk City, Kalinga – The National Food Authority (NFA) here denied the allegation of the business sector that this province is experiencing a rice shortage.

The business sector points to the abnormally high price of commodity and the limited supplies of the local rice millers as indicators of the allege short supply of rice. From an average of P900.00 – P1,000.00 per bag of rice is now selling at as high as P1,250.00 per bag.

However, NFA provincial manager Eduardo Mercado asked how there could be rice shortage in a surplus area which harvest 3M bags of palay and consumes only 400,000 of rice.

He also cites the latest survey of the Bureau of Statistics which indicates that there are still 61,000 bags of rice in households in the province which he says is a sizeable volume of rice reserve.

Mercado explains the high price of rice in the province as a result of undisciplined businessmen taking advantage of the situation.

“Due to the drought which affected Northern Luzon from May to August, the planting has been delayed in Region 2 which produces 40 percent of the rice yield in the country resulting in a decrease in the supply of palay and milled rice. With the limited supply, naturally, the law of supply and demand come into play, thus, the higher price of rice. The situation is made worse by businessmen who are not satisfied with small profits setting domino effect. This is a shameful mentality among us Filipinos,” Mercado said.

To remedy the situation, Mercado met with local rice retailers and millers on September 3 to appeal to their conscience and warn them that the NFA will strengthen its monitoring system and apprehend violators. He reported, however, that they have not apprehended anybody until now because, according to him, local retailers are good in hiding their illegal activities.

Mercado also said that they have fielded rolling stores to sell in Tabuk City markets four days a week “for visibility and availability of government rice and also to somewhat dampen the price of rice.”

Mercado said that they must be succeeding because the retailers have been complaining that the NFA is competing with them in the distribution of government rice.

Mercado said that the situation is about to stabilize because farmers in Rizal, Kalinga and also Isabela are starting to harvest their rice crops. **Estanislao Albano, Jr.