NFA stresses need for more drying facilities
Amid the harvest season, the National Food Authority (NFA) stressed the need to put up enough drying facilities for palay, noting that the very low post harvest capacity in terms of mechanical drying is a "major challenge" for the agency.
In a press conference, John Robert Hermano, NFA Assistant Administrator said as of Thursday that with the implementation of their new buffer stocking incentive, the NFA has procured 500,600 bags, mostly in Region 6 (Western Visayas) where the harvest season is at its peak.
"Next week, some of the regions such as Region 1 (Ilocos) and Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) will have its peak harvest so we expect more procurement for the next two weeks. Our target is to procure 12.8 million bags," he said.
"We hope to attain this so that we will have enough buffer stock until the end of the year, while DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) has about 139,000 MT requirement until the end of the year we want to have a buffer stock that can supply the requirement of the DSWD at the same time maintain an inventory of nine days," he added.
NFA Administrator Roderico Bioco noted that procurement is a challenge for the agency not because of the price of rice but due to not having enough post harvest capacity.
"It's a major challenge and at the same time an opportunity for the NFA... It is not the price problem it is the post harvest issue, we are lacking in the post harvest and it is a challenge for the NFA to procure, because NFA has not invested meaningfully in the last 40 years. This is why the president is really pushing that the NFA should be capacitated to meet its buffering function so it's critical that we have to put up enough drying capacity," he said.
"For now, the current capacity of NFA is very very low and it is not just NFA but the whole country. Our post harvest capacity in terms of mechanical drying is very very low, this is something that we need to address seriously within the administration of our president that is why he is putting a lot of support to the NFA," he added.
Hermano said the current capacity of NFA for requirement of drying facilities is just three percent.
"Our target is about 1.1 million, for 2025 we need to procure up to 2 million with the 31,000 drying capacity. Our program is more on to fill the gap between our requirement and our capacity. We have to install 26 projects for major processing centers that include the drying facility," he said.
"Our target is to meet our requirement which is 1.1 million for the rice production area, we will be putting up more facilities to make sure that during the wet season we will be able to procure more wheat palay," he added.
Bioco said for the 2023 budget the NFA is putting up six large drying projects in six locations costing about 1.1 billion.
"For next year, we hope to get additional budget for driers we need to invest as much as 16 to 20 billion a year on drying and storage facilities to meet our mandate the next four to five years, it takes time to built these facilities but we already have our masterplan in meeting this mandate," he said. Robina Asido/DMS
