26 October 2005
NFA boosts farmers’ selling, buying options
By Venus May H. Aquino
THE National Food Authority, western Pangasinan branch has brought more than 2,000 bags of palay, 188 of these procured under the Farmer’s Option To Buy Back (FOBB).
Under the FOBB program, the NFA procures palay directly from farmers and farmer cooperatives to serve as buffer stock for food security and stabilization purposes but with farmers/cooperatives option to buy-back almost the same volume of stocks they sold to the agency within a specified period.
NFA Manager Arturo Figueroa explained that the program is the agency’s response to individual farmers’ or farmer organizations’ immediate need for cash. This provides farmers the opportunity to buy-back the stocks they had previously sold to NFA, net of shrinkage within six months or one cropping cycle and when palay prices in the market increase significantly above the government support price, thereby maximizing income from their produce.
Figueroa added that by availing of the government support price, the farmers are assured of a reasonable and favorable return for their investment, thus encouraging increased production.
At the same time, the food agency’s western Pangasinan office said it has started its palay-buying this October with a support price of P10/kg as delivery fee, P0.15kg as drying fee and P0.25/kg as cooperative development incentive fee (CDIF).
This makes the NFA’s effective buying price at P10.50/kg for farmer’s organization/cooperative and P10.25/kg for accredited individual farmers.
Figueroa added that for this harvesting season, the branch has prepared its mechanical dryer consisting of a six-ton capacity Shen Heung Dryer, Maruyana dryer and a mobile dryer in its Alaminos City and Mangatarem warehouses to enable farmers to dry their newly harvested palay crops.
Farmers’ cooperatives in Alaminos have already availed of the use of dryer facilities with a total of 250 bags of palay at a minimal fee. Farmers are also given priority access to NFA’s storage, milling, drying, threshing, transporting and weighing facilities at reasonable service rates. (Venus May H. Sarmiento/PIA-Ilocos
THE National Food Authority, western Pangasinan branch has brought more than 2,000 bags of palay, 188 of these procured under the Farmer’s Option To Buy Back (FOBB).
Under the FOBB program, the NFA procures palay directly from farmers and farmer cooperatives to serve as buffer stock for food security and stabilization purposes but with farmers/cooperatives option to buy-back almost the same volume of stocks they sold to the agency within a specified period.
NFA Manager Arturo Figueroa explained that the program is the agency’s response to individual farmers’ or farmer organizations’ immediate need for cash. This provides farmers the opportunity to buy-back the stocks they had previously sold to NFA, net of shrinkage within six months or one cropping cycle and when palay prices in the market increase significantly above the government support price, thereby maximizing income from their produce.
Figueroa added that by availing of the government support price, the farmers are assured of a reasonable and favorable return for their investment, thus encouraging increased production.
At the same time, the food agency’s western Pangasinan office said it has started its palay-buying this October with a support price of P10/kg as delivery fee, P0.15kg as drying fee and P0.25/kg as cooperative development incentive fee (CDIF).
This makes the NFA’s effective buying price at P10.50/kg for farmer’s organization/cooperative and P10.25/kg for accredited individual farmers.
Figueroa added that for this harvesting season, the branch has prepared its mechanical dryer consisting of a six-ton capacity Shen Heung Dryer, Maruyana dryer and a mobile dryer in its Alaminos City and Mangatarem warehouses to enable farmers to dry their newly harvested palay crops.
Farmers’ cooperatives in Alaminos have already availed of the use of dryer facilities with a total of 250 bags of palay at a minimal fee. Farmers are also given priority access to NFA’s storage, milling, drying, threshing, transporting and weighing facilities at reasonable service rates. (Venus May H. Sarmiento/PIA-Ilocos
