Pangasinan to buy palay from local farmers soon

By February 7, 2021Business, News

TO PROTECT FARMERS LIVELIHOOD

THE provincial government will soon be buying palay directly from local farmers particularly those severely affected by the low price of palay due to rice tarrification and constant price manipulation by unscrupulous traders every rice harvest season.

This was indicated by Governor Amado Espino III when he led the signing of a memorandum of agreement and the turnover of two completed tobacco curing barns in in Barangay Sto. Domingo in San Manuel and Barangay Poblacion in Balungao on January 28.

The governor told farmers in Balungao that in preparation for the palay buying operation, the provincial government already bought lots in Mabini, Sta. Barbara and San Quintin where they will construct rice mills to process palay bought from farmers.

He said the provincial government already commenced palay buying in moderate scale from small farmers through the Abig Pangasinan Karaban moving from town to town now selling and buying Pangasinan products.

Other products being bought included vegetables, meat and fish intended to supply the needs of all 14 public hospitals operated by the provincial government.

Espino  said the provincial government will process the palay bought from farmers and sell back to them as rice at a price cheaper than the commercial rice being sold in the market or pass this to them and their families as loan.

It was Provincial Agriculturist Dalisay Moya  who earlier revealed that the provincial government will soon undertake palay buying operations as farmers continue to bemoan the low price of palay being offered by traders.

Moya said the annual budget of her office this year already allocated funds for the construction of warehouses for storage of the palay that will be bought from farmers after the harvest season.

In support of the planned operation, Agriculture Secretary William Dar promised to rehabilitate the Rice Processing Plant in Sta. Barbara town owned by the DA. It will still be seen if the rehab of the plant will be done in time for the purchasing.

Espino vowed that his administration will continue to support tobacco farmers as well as palay farmers to improve the quality of their life and that of their families.

Turned over were two curing barns worth P10,000,000, funded from the P27,655,395 Tobacco Excise Tax for in 2016.

Moya said other projects of the provincial government funded by the Tobacco Excise Tax included 87 units of hand tractors and 57 units of water pumps that were distributed to the tobacco farmers. (Leonardo Micua)

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