ABONO asked NFA to maximized purchase of palay by 25 %
By: JANICE D. HIDALGO
General Manager
CARMEN ROSALES- ABONO PARTYLIST on Monday called on the National Food Authority (NFA) to buy more palay from farmers at the start of the harvest season this month to ward off a down trend in palay prices and maximize the purchasing charter of 20 – 25 % and postpone importation of rice till July next year
As the Abono partylist also seek to qualify all Filipino farmers in selling their palays to the government thru the National food Authority ( NFA) by disregarding the farmers passbook and used the master’s lists system certified by the local government.
Engineer Rosendo So president of the Eastern Pangasinan Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EPFCCCI), and the founder of the Abono partylist told Pangasinan Today that ABONO PARTYLIST is asking the government to at least purchase 20 -25% of the total harvested palays all over the country, contesting the actual charter of the National food Authority which is only 12 % of the total harvest.
This will at least stable the buying price of Palay from the farmers at 17 pesos per kilo.
At present, the government is only purchasing five percent of the total harvest of Palays from the farmers which is not helping the Filipino farmers from the high costs of farm inputs.
Pangasinan alone is expected to produce more or less eight hundred metric tons of palays for the upcoming October-November cropping this year, and a total of 9.68 million metric tons of rice which is enough to supply the Filipino people until April next year.
So reiterated that Abono Partylist is now preparing to questioned the budget allocation for the importation of rice in this coming 2009 budget deliberation at the plenary.
Meanwhile, Secretary Arthur Yap has initially instructed the National Food Authority NFA in Pangasinan to consider the Master’s list system in identifying the farmers where the palays will be bought by the government, but has not yet stated if they will purchase the volume requested by the ABONO partylists which is 20 -25% of the total harvest .
So said that a move in the House of Representatives to put this in detailed manner in a form of privilege is expected one of this days.