By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental has started to buy rice from local farmers to assist them in recovering from the bad weather conditions in the province recently.

NFA-NegOcc acting manager Glenda Paz said under the agency’s Palay-Marketing Assistance Program for Legislators and Local Government Units (PALLGU), the LGUs will provide an additional fund of P23 per kilogram of “clean and dry” rice from farmers, based on the new Equivalent Net Weight Factor Table.

Farmers could also sell their wet or unhusked rice at P16 to P19, with LGUs supplementing an additional P1 to P3, depending on their available funds.

Paz said rice supplies bought by NFA from provincial farmers will be sold to the Department of Social Services and Development, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and several LGUs in times of calamities.

The provincial NFA office said Valladolid town is the first LGU in Negros Occidental to lead the PALLGU program, where P1 will be added to every kilogram of rice brought by NFA from farmers./DGB, WDJ