SOME rice farmers in Region 1, including Pangasinan, are having an early harvest, prompting the National Food Authority (NFA) to speed up preparations for the palay procurement season.

Carlito G. Co, NFA regional director, said the agency has been preparing this early since reports coming from the field offices indicate that some commercial buying stations already started buying palay from farmers.

“We have monitored that more areas have already started harvesting their palay. In fact, we were surprised that there are already farmers who sold their palay in our buying stations especially in the Pangasinan area,” Co said.

Part of the NFA’s preparation is the opening of buying stations in strategic areas across the region and the fielding of mobile procurement teams starting September 9.

The NFA buys clean and dry palay from farmers at the government’s buying price of P17.00 per kilogram. Farmers who sell to the agency could also avail of incentives as individuals or members of farmer cooperatives.

This main cropping season, the agency expects to buy around 1.4 million bags of palay, which would serve as the region’s buffer stocks to ensure food sufficiency in the area.

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