The Department of Agriculture (DA) will provide incentives of as much as P3.00 per kilo to farmers’ cooperative under the National Palay Procurement Program of the Department which will be launched late October of this year.
This was the announcement made by Agriculture Secretary Manny F. Pinol, during a palay procurement ceremony held on October 12, 2018 at GID IV Nawaco Compound in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro.
Under the initiative, farmers’ who will bring their clean and dry palay will receive P17/kilo and additional P3/kilo incentive. This is on top of NFA’s P0.20/kl for delivery fee, P0.20/kl for drying fee and P0.30/kl for Cooperative Development Incentive Fund.
The new incentive mechanism comes after the reinstatement of NFA to the DA family.
“NFA, under this administration, will give more priority to the local procurement of palay over importation,” Pinol added.
The procured palay will be part of the NFA buffer stocks for 2019.
Pinol also defended NFA against detractors who insist the abolishment of the agency.
“NFA is the only state trading agency recognized by the World Trade Organization. However, it should not only focus on rice trading but must should also cater to the needs of other farming sector,” Pinol said.
“NFA is needed not only to protect Filipino rice traders but also the rights of other farming sectors,” he added.
During the visit, Pinol committed P100 million (M) credit funds under the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program of DA thru the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC).
ACPC has initially released a total P69.5M PLEA credit for Occidental Mindoro, with a 99 percent repayment record.
The agri chief also announced that DA will provide additional incentives in form of farm machineries for farmers’ cooperative who will meet the palay procurement requirement of NFA.
“For every 50,000 bags sold to NFA, the farmers’ coop will receive Solar-Power Irrigation System (SPIS) worth P7M funded by DA. Pababa ng pababa may equivalent machineries na ibibigay,” Pinol said.
He also urged farmers association to avail loan from ACPC for the procurement of modern farm machineries needed to improve their farm production.
“You can avail up to P2M, 2% annual interest, 8 years to pay from ACPC,” Pinol said. ### (Kristel Merle, DA-AFID)
