CASH INCENTIVE. Santa Mayor Jesus Bueno Jr. on Friday (Oct. 12, 2023) says the local government unit is giving farmers an additional PHP3 per kilo for clean palay on top of NFA's current buying price. The cash incentive is meant to boost farmers' productivity. (Photo by Leilanie G. Adriano)
SANTA, Ilocos Sur — The local government unit of Santa in Ilocos Sur is giving additional PHP3 cash incentives to its rice farmers who sell their unhusked rice or palay to the National Food Authority.
On top of NFA’s buying price of PHP23 per kilo, a farmer or farmer organizations can earn PHP3 more, to PHP26 per kilo, when selling clean and dry palay to the government food agency.
"The additional cash incentive is meant to help our farmers increase their income while coping with the increasing prices of agricultural inputs, including fuel,” Santa Mayor Jesus Bueno Jr. told the Philippine News Agency on Friday.
Santa is the first local government unit that inked a memorandum of agreement with NFA for the implementation of the Palay Marketing Assistance for Legislators and Local Government Units (PALLGUs).
PALLGU is an NFA-established program that enables farmers to increase their profits but its implementation depends on legislators and LGUs’ level of support.
Under the program, the legislators or heads of LGUs shall enter into a marketing agreement with NFA where the former shall provide a premium amount, which shall be added to the existing government buying price of palay.
It aims to provide opportunities for rice farmers to maximize their income and for local government units and other national government agencies to serve their farmer constituents.
“We are glad of the government’s extent of support to us farmers. It is a year of good harvest with a good price too,” said Michael Borje, a farmer from Barangay Mabilbila Sur, Santa, Ilocos Sur, who sold all his produce to the NFA because of its competitive price.
The NFA has started buying palay since the first week of October, the start of the harvest season.
Aside from the ongoing in-house procurement operations in various NFA warehouses located in Ilocos Sur, Abra, and Ilocos Norte, the agency also announced that they have activated their mobile procurement operations to help farmers haul their produce to be sold to the nearest NFA buying station.
This will also help increase NFA’s buffer stock, the agency’s main mandate under Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law. (PNA)
