NFA allots P35.6 billion to buy palay, corn from local farmers in 2013

The National Food Authority (NFA) has allotted P35.6 billion to buy rice and corn from local farmers next year. According to NFA officer in charge Ludivico Jarina at the Senate hearing for the Department of Agriculture's 2013 budget, the government is planning to buy as much as 1.756 million metric tons (MT) rice from farmers in 2013. “Our direction now is to procure our needs from local sources. Eventually rice importation will be obsolete as our farmers continue to strive to efficiently produce staples to attain food security,” he said Tuesday. This year, the Philippines imported 500,000 MT of rice, mostly from Vietnam, as buffer stock for the lean months of the third quarter. The NFA has had to cut local buying in half to 540,000 metric tons (MT), owing to budgetary constraints. The DA estimates palay production to reach 17.8 million MT for 2012, for 95-percent sufficiency. The NFA is planning to limit its importation of rice to 100,000-150,000 MT in 2013 as suggested by the Agriculture Department. This would be less than 1 percent of the target local rice output of 20.04 million MT for the year. If the country's rice production reaches that goal, then it will have attained self-sufficiency in rice. — BM, GMA News