The National Food Authority (NFA) is encouraging rice farmers to take advantage of the hot weather to dry their palay, helping boost earnings through higher selling prices. NFA administrator Larry Lacson said that drying palay may incur additional costs but offers significant rewards, with private millers currently paying P20 to P22 per kilogram for clean, dry palay, compared to P15 to P17 for wet palay.
To support farmers, NFA has raised its buying price to P18 per kilogram for fresh palay and P24 per kilogram for clean and dry palay. The push comes amid low global rice prices and the pressure of improved local harvests, which are affecting the price of the commodity. NFA plans to purchase 880,000 metric tons of palay this year to meet the country’s rice buffer stock requirement.
With a procurement budget of P14 billion, NFA is also ramping up milling operations and investing in new infrastructure to improve its efforts. These measures aim to stabilize local rice prices, which are currently ranging from P36 to P63 per kilogram in markets across the National Capital Region.
