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.

Tabuk City agri official sees increased subsidy to rice farmers as solution to shortage

Tabuk City, Kalinga - The top agri official of this city, dubbed the "Rice Granary of the Cordillera," says that the government is in the right track when it recently increased the government palay support price to PI7.00 per kilo and likewise the subsidy for seeds.

City Agriculturist Gilbert Cawis believes that in the end, the increase of government subsidy to rice farmers will solve the rice shortage because it encourages the latter to maximize the yield of their farmlands.

“The higher NFA (National Food Authority) price for palay is expected to raise the buying price by private traders and the bigger seed subsidy is another morale-booster for farmers both of which have the effect of making the farmer produce more rice," Cawis said.

According to Cawis, this cropping season, the government has increased the subsidy for hybrid seeds from P1,000.00 to P1,500.00 per bag and for in-bred varieties from P440.00 to P600.00 per bag.

Cawis said that another reason the government should increase subsidy to the rice farming sector is the skyrocketing of farm input prices.

He suggested that the government should address this concern by giving free compost fertilizers to farmers because not only is organic fertilizer cheaper but it is also environmentally friendly unlike inorganic fertilizers which make the soil acidic.

The agricultural official believes that although most farmers prefer commercial fertilizers due to the easier application and quicker results, "they will use compost fertilizer if this is given free."

A check with palay traders in the locality showed that at the moment when the current crop is starting to come in, the price of fresh palay is P16.50 per kilo and dried palay at P18.70 a kilo, the highest ever in the history of Tabuk Valley.

Cawis also said that the government should also control the importation of rice because if rice floods the market, the tendency is for the price of palay to revert to old levels to the detriment of the farmers.

With its 10,000 hectares of irrigated rice lands, the Tabuk Valley is the foremost rice producer in the Cordillera. **By Estanislao 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.