Farmers may earn up to P8 per kilo as palay buying price rises —NFA

The National Food Authority (NFA) said on Thursday that farmers may earn up to P8 per kilo after it recently raised the palay buying price to P30 per kilogram.

"Malaking epekto ito sa mga magsasaka. Unang-una, tumaas ang presyo, meaning malaki ang take-home nila. Sa tinatayang P16-P17 production cost eh kung susumahin nga baka kumita sila 'pag pinatuyo nila lahat and all, kumita sila diyan ng mga 7 hanggang P8 per kilo," said NFA administrator Larry Lacson in an interview with Super Radyo dzBB.

(This is a big impact for the farmers. First, the price increased, meaning their take-home [pay] is higher. With the estimated P16-P17 production cost, if you sum it all up, they might earn, if they dry everything and all, they could earn around P7 to P8 per kilo.)

The NFA earlier set the buying price for clean and dry palay at P28 to P30 per kilo. Meanwhile, farmers can now also procure 500 bags per cropping season from individual growers, up from the previous ceiling of 200 bags per farmer.

Although there were concerns that farmers face high production costs, the NFA said the higher palay buying price can still allow farmers to recover their expenses.

"Opo, totoo po 'yan, malaki po ang kanilang gastos actually kaya ang tinatayang production cost umaabot na nga ng P17 pero sumatotal pa rin sa presyo ng NFA, talagang ano naman, makakabawi. Huwag lang masyadong bumagsak 'yung kanilang production volume eh makakabawi, hindi malulugi at meron pang magandang sobra," said Lacson.

(Yes, that's true, their expenses are actually large, which is why the estimated production cost even reaches P17, but all in all, with the NFA's price, they will really be able to recover. As long as their production volume doesn't drop too much, they will recover, won't suffer a loss, and will even have a good surplus.)

Moreover, the NFA agreed that its palay procurement program would have a greater direct impact on farmers if it could purchase at least 10% of the country's total palay harvest, ideally reaching 10% to 20%.

But the agency also argued that the higher buying price still influences the broader market.

"Sa isang banda tama 'yun kasi kung ang nabibili namin 5 (porsyento) pababa lang, sasabihin natin hindi masyadong makakaimpluwensya sa presyo sa merkado at saka ilan lang 'yun, 3%-5% lang ng magsasaka ang nakinabang," said Lacson.

(On one hand, that's correct because if what we buy is only 5 [percent] and below, we can say it won't influence the market price very much, and besides, that's only a few—only 3%-5% of the farmers benefit.)

"Pero ako, kung ako tatanungin mo, ang NFA tatanungin ninyo, ay gusto namin makuha namin at least 10% hanggang 20% sana para talaga namang tuwang-tuwa ang ating magsasaka," he added.

(But me, if you ask me, if you ask the NFA, we want to capture at least 10% to 20% hopefully so that our farmers will truly be overjoyed.) —AOL, GMA News