NFA should buy more palay to ensure food security
MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority should at least triple its procurement target for the year to ensure food security and insulate the price of rice from external shocks, a group said.
Manila’s recent move to hike its local procurement of unhusked rice to one million metric tons (MTs) is not enough since the resulting buffer stock is “insufficient to provide food security to 90 million Filipinos," the Task Force Food Sovereignty said in a statement.
"At a projected rice consumption of 35,000 MT per day, there should be at least 3.15 MMT of rice as buffer stock," Arze Glipo, the group’s lead convenor said.
The task force also criticized the NFA's procurement policy of giving priority to farmers who have shifted from inbred to certified seeds, and from certified to hybrid seeds.
“There should be no special treatment if the concern is food security," Glipo said.
The food agency’s current procurement policy forces farmers to plant a "costlier" hybrid variety that will only benefit the private traders, not the farmers, in the long run, she added.
“Even if the government buys palay at P17 per kilogram, farmers would still be at the losing end because of higher cost of inputs to maintain the hybrid variety," Glipo said. - GMANews.TV
Manila’s recent move to hike its local procurement of unhusked rice to one million metric tons (MTs) is not enough since the resulting buffer stock is “insufficient to provide food security to 90 million Filipinos," the Task Force Food Sovereignty said in a statement.
"At a projected rice consumption of 35,000 MT per day, there should be at least 3.15 MMT of rice as buffer stock," Arze Glipo, the group’s lead convenor said.
The task force also criticized the NFA's procurement policy of giving priority to farmers who have shifted from inbred to certified seeds, and from certified to hybrid seeds.
“There should be no special treatment if the concern is food security," Glipo said.
The food agency’s current procurement policy forces farmers to plant a "costlier" hybrid variety that will only benefit the private traders, not the farmers, in the long run, she added.
“Even if the government buys palay at P17 per kilogram, farmers would still be at the losing end because of higher cost of inputs to maintain the hybrid variety," Glipo said. - GMANews.TV
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