With the start of the harvest season for rice, members of farmers’ associations across the country welcomed the recent increase in the buying price of palay, aimed at helping farmers earn more.
Cesar Daayata, president of Paradise Village CARP Beneficiaries and Farmer-Irrigators Association (PAVICABEFIA) in Wao, Lanao del Sur, has expressed their group’s gratitude to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for issuing the said order.
Daayata said this has encouraged his organization to sell their produce to the NFA and hopes that more positive developments will come to boost the country’s rice production.
“Pasalamat ko sa atung halangdon nga presidente nga unta mapadayon pa niya ang daghan kaayo nga kaayuhan alang sa mga mag-uuma aron sa pagpabarog ug lig-on alang sa atong rice production,” Daayata said.
(I thank the President, hoping that he will continue to strengthen the welfare of rice farmers in order to strengthen our rice production.)
The NFA-Isabela said that harvesting of rice has already started in the province and farmers are satisfied with the new sets of buying prices regardless whether they deliver it to their financiers or the NFA warehouse as buying prices are guaranteed.
NFA-Isabela expects their warehouse will be full by the third week of October.
In Malinao, Albay, harvesting has started as well. Drying facilities are now being filled for the drying process of palay before being transported to its respective buyers.
“Maraming salamat po, Presidente, na tinaasan mo ‘yung palay namin kasi makakatulong sa’ming magsasaka,” Melchor Borhal, a rice farmer from Malinao town, said.
Another rice farmer, Maryjane Melgar, who delivers her palay to the NFA-Tobaco, Albay, said that the increased NFA buying price is a big help to small rice farmers like them.
Melgar added that she is grateful to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and the NFA for their continued support of the farmers. | PND
(MB FILE PHOTO)