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.

Tabuk City hog raisers fail to make the most of current hog supply shortage

Tabuk City, Kalinga - The hog supply shortage brought about by the recent hog epidemic which originated from Bulacan and spread to other parts of Luzon including the Cagayan Valley and Kalinga has jacked up live and dressed weight prices here.

City Veterinarian Fermin Quinto said that around 20 percent of the hog population in the city was lost due to the infection of hog cholera, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and the circo virus disease.

But according to Quinto, despite the crisis, local hog raisers as usual are not getting the most from their production because local meat vendors are reluctant to let them.

Quinto told the media that while meat vendors from Cagayan and Isabela now going around the city looking for hogs are buying at P90.00 to P95.00 per kilo, local meat vendors are buying hogs at P85.00 to P90.00 and that's even after they have raised the price of lean pork meat to P140.00 from the P130.00 set by City Ordinance No. 04, series of 2004.

Quinto also said it is doubtful if during the present crisis the local meat vendors will stop their notorious practices of not paying hog raisers right away and returning the parts of the hog which are hard to sell such as the head, feet and belly to the hog raiser at the dressed weight price.

Quinto said that hog raisers are partly to blame for the shabby treatment they are receiving from the meat vendors because they could not put up a united stand relative to the local meat vendors.

"For many years now, we have been telling them to organize so they could have a strong bargaining position with the vendors but none of the several organizations they have set up without assistance ever became operational," Quinto said.

Quinto added that they have stressed to the hog raisers that the best thing they could do is not to remain mere producers but also to slaughter and process their hogs so they could dictate the price but the hog raisers are not heeding the advice.

Asked for their side, Tabuk Market Meat Vendors Association (TMMVA) Vice President Elizabeth Castillo denied that they have raised pork prices claiming that P140.00 per kilo is the legal price.

She explained that prior to the current hog supply shortage when there was an over-supply of hogs they have been selling meat at as low as P120.00 per kilo.

Castillo rued that when it's the live weight price of hogs which are hiked, it goes unnoticed but when it's the prices of pork which are raised, the public and hog raisers raise a howl.

She said that the TMMVA are planning to raise the prices of pork to PI 50.00 per kilo so that they could compete with the outside meat vendors who are buying at as high as P100.00 per live weight kilo.

Regarding the issue of parts .of hogs being returned by buying meat vendors to hog raisers, Castillo said that no member in the TMMVA is involved except in the case of sows but then again, it is only when the hog raiser consents.

Anticipating that the hog raisers will not respond to fresh calls for them to sit down to plan and formulate strategies to successfully deal with the meat vendors, Quinto only gave them the practical advice not to sell the hogs they are fattening which are not yet of market weight of 90 to 120 kilos so they could maximize their investment.

Regarding the hog epidemic, Quinto said that his office has not received any report of an incident since mid-March in the wake of the information campaign, distribution of disinfectants which were provided by the Department of Agriculture and massive vaccination undertaken by his office. **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.