ILOILO City – In a major boost to farmer support and rice security efforts, the National Food Authority (NFA) is aiming to purchase one million bags of palay (unmilled rice) from farmers across Western Visayas this year, offering higher buying prices than market rates to encourage more sales.
Jasmin Lintag, regional manager of NFA, said that as of today, they have already procured around 17 percent of their target volume. The purchased palay is currently stored across 21 NFA warehouses in the region.
“Our procurement is ongoing. We are at 17 percent versus the target, and we are confident that by the end of the year, we will hit the one million bags of palay procurement,” Lintag said.
Lintag explained that procurement has slowed in recent months as the harvest season for the second cropping ended between February and March. However, Capiz province remains an exception, with active palay buying operations and around 250,000 to 300,000 bags procured so far.
The agency expects procurement activities to pick up by the last quarter of the year during the first cropping harvest, Lintag added.
NFA is offering farmers attractive prices — P24 to P25 per kilogram for clean and dry palay and P18 to P19 per kilogram for fresh harvests — about P1 to P2 higher than prevailing market prices.
Lintag urged farmers to sell their palay directly to NFA buying stations and warehouses to benefit from these better rates.
The expanded procurement program not only strengthens local rice buffer stocks but also ensures that government agencies in Western Visayas — including the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), and local government units (LGUs) — have adequate rice supplies.
Lintag also revealed that NFA Region 6 has become a major rice source for other regions. Last week, DSWD-Region 7 procured 23,000 bags of rice from NFA-6, with a standing agreement to supply 31,000 bags monthly from May to December 2025.
“NFA-6 is confident that we can meet whatever rice requirements are needed,” Lintag assured.
Currently, the region holds about 1.5 million bags of palay in its warehouses, with an additional 105,000 bags of milled rice (50 kilograms per bag) serving as buffer stock.
Meanwhile, in support of the Iloilo provincial government’s rollout of the subsidized P20-per-kilogram rice program, Lintag confirmed that the NFA has sufficient supply available. The rice will initially be sold at P33 per kilogram, but the provincial government, together with Food Terminal Incorporated (FTI), will subsidize P13 per kilogram, bringing the final selling price down to P20 for targeted families with malnourished children.
Lintag assured the public that all rice being distributed by the NFA is of good quality and well-milled, emphasizing that consumers should have no concerns over product standards./PN
