BY MARCHEL P. ESPINA
The National Food Authority (NFA) is urging farmers to sell their palay or unhusked rice to the government agency amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We invite our farmers from Western Visayas to sell their palay to NFA. We continue to buy clean and dry palay at P19 per kilogram,” the agency said on its Facebook page.
It listed the 29 buying stations in the provinces in the region. These include 11 in Iloilo, five each in Aklan and Antique, and four each in Capiz and Negros Occidental.
In Negros Occidental, the buying stations are GID warehouse in Gatuslao Street and JJ warehouse at Bredco Port, both in Bacolod City, DTY warehouse in Endrina Street, San Carlos City, and Gequillana warehouse in Ilog town.
The NFA said it is buying palay from the farmers or farmers’ organizations at government support price to ensure the market to accommodate farmers’ produce and enable farmers a fair return on production investment.
The program is also undertaken to ensure and establish manageable buffer stocks in line with the agency’s function of stabilizing consumer price levels and assuring an adequate and continuous supply of rice, the NFA said.*
