Negros Occidental provincial agriculturist, Atty. Japhet Masculino, yesterday discussed some of the challenges encountered with purchasing palay, or rice, from local farmers.
Despite the provincial government already purchasing 180 sacks of palay at P15 per kilogram with funds still available, the holiday season has reduced the time in which they can make purchases.
He noted, buying will resume after the holiday season.
The provincial official also noted issues with coordination between the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, the Capitol Government Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and inspection teams as teams often have other duties to attend to ahead of accompanying the buying team.
Masculino said they are looking at the Iloilo Provincial Government, which conducts palay-buying with farmers cooperatives purchasing directly without going through a bidding process and inspection.
“Farmers can contact our office if they want to sell their palay,” the provincial agriculturist added.
Meanwhile, he also said around 40,000 farmers across the province are eligible for a P5,000 government subsidy. Funding for the subsidy is part of the P13 billion in tariffs collected by the government from imported rice under the Rice Tariffication Law.
Masculino said the fund was made available for those affected by plummeting palay prices due to implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law./DGB, WDJ