The National Food Authority (NFA) announced on Friday that it has bought a total of 11.52 million bags of paddy rice or palay from local farmers across the country, noting that the agency is confident that it will hit its target of 14.46 million bags before the main harvest ends this year.

“As of November 20, we have already achieved 80% of our target. The main crop traditionally yields 70% of the total annual production. Normally, we buy more from farmers during the last quarter of the year. We are hopeful, our target will be attainable,” NFA Administrator Judy Carol Dansal said in a statement.

According to the NFA, the 11.52 million bags of palay were procured from local farmers nationwide, mostly from Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog and Cagayan Valley regions.

The NFA’s daily average procurement rate stood at 125,754 bags per day.

“We try to accommodate all farmers who sell their harvest. We have 642 buying stations which are strategically located across the country to accept their produce,” Dansal said.

Aside from the stationary buying stations, the NFA also deploys mobile procurement in areas such as Ilocos Sur, Kalinga, Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya, Batangas, Camarines Norte, Masbate, Sorsogon, Antique, Southern Leyte, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur, Pagadian, Ipil, Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte, Dipolog, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Lanao del Norte, and Maguindanao to cater to farmers in far-flung areas.

Since the start of the main cropping season last September, the NFA said more farmers have taken advantage of NFA’s support price of P19 per kilogram of palay.

Based on NFA’s monitoring, the prevailing farmgate prices of palay is recorded at P16.69 to P16.71 and the agency explained that it buys palay based on the Equivalent Net Weight Factor (ENWF) such as moisture content, purity and discoloration and damage of the palay.

Previously, the NFA buys palay from farmers at P17 per kilogram with additional incentives including incentives the P3 per kilogram buffer stocking incentive (BSI) and additional incentives of P0.20 to P0.50 delivery incentive; P0.20 drying incentive and P0.30 Cooperative Development Incentive Fund (CDIF) for cooperatives or farmers’ organizations.

During last year’s main crop procurement, the agency said it purchased a total of 1.15 million bags from October to December 2018 and so far, the agency has purchased a total of 4.67 million bags from October to November 2019 alone.