THE National Food Authority (NFA) has started prepositioning rice buffer stocks across the country about a month before the onset of the traditional lean months of July to September.
“We have to move our inventories from surplus to deficit areas while the current good weather allows us to transfer stocks between regions and ship to island provinces that are vulnerable to isolation during the rainy season,” said Judy Carol Dansal, NFA administrator.
The NFA started calibrating its rice releases to local government units (LGUs) and relief agencies to focus on rice dispersal operations and ensure buffer stocks are safely and promptly delivered where they will be most needed during the lean months’ period.
“The Inter Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases had given us the go signal to rationalize our rice releases for food pack distribution (to families under quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic) after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was lowered to either modified enhanced community quarantine or general community quarantine,” Dansal said in a statement.
She said LGUs and the Department of Social Welfare and Development may source their rice requirements for relief operations directly from farmers, farmer cooperatives or commercial rice traders.
From March when ECQ was declared in various areas in the country until May 19, NFA has so far issued a total of 4.897 million bags of rice to LGUs, the DSWD, legislators and other relief agencies. It was 243 percent more than the 2.014 million bags distribution target for the period.
On the other hand, NFA’s total rice sales of 6.598 million bags from January 1 to May 19 already represents 71 percent of its total rice distribution target of 9.259 million for the year.
Under the Rice Tarrification Law, the agency’s role is to maintain the country’s rice buffer stocks that are sourced solely from local farmers to be used in times of calamity or emergency.
