ILOILO – The National Food Authority (NFA) has procured 1.1 million bags of rice from farmers here in the second half of this year or from July to Dec. 21.
The purchase price was P10 per kilo of rice, according to Pat Espinosa, provincial information officer of NFA-Iloilo.
In September NFA bought 250,554 bags of rice; October, 386,833 bags; November, 345,145 bags; and Dec. 1 to 21, 146,133 bags.
NFA set up rice procurement sites in 10 municipalities to make it easier for farmers to sell their produce to the grains agency.
According to Espinosa, this was NFA-Iloilo’s answer to Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.’s call for NFA to reach out most especially to farmers reeling from the drop in rice prices primarily due to the deluge of cheap, imported rice.
Other farmers chose to deliver their produce themselves to NFA warehouses, said Espinosa, with the help of their local government units which provided trucks for the hauling.
At its office in Jaro, Iloilo City NFA has two huge warehouses.
Some of the buying stations of NFA-Iloilo were in the towns of San Dionisio, Dumangas, Pototan, Dumangas, and Dueñas./PN
