STA. BARBARA, Pangasinan, Sept. 3 — Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has ordered massive palay-buying operation in Central Luzon and Pangasinan, where harvest season will soon start.

While in Pangasinan on Tuesday and Wednesday, Yap announced that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has released from P7 to P10 billion for use of the National Food Authority (NFA) in buying rice from farmers all over the country. From Nueva Ecija where he accompanied President Arroyo, the Agriculture Secretary dropped by Pangasinan to inspect existing agricultural projects, including the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (ARIIP). Yap also visited his grandmother by his mother side in Dagupan City.

Yap started his inspection in Sta. Barbara town, where he visited various production areas and self-sufficient communities, along with Mayor Reynaldo Velasco. He said while the NFA is buying palay from local farmers, the food agency will still import cereal requirement from Vietnam and China to fill in the 10 percent gap that is still needed to ensure steady supply. Noting that rice harvest is soon to start in Pangasinan, Yap called on NFA personnel to prepare their warehouses in order to accommodate the palay that will be bought from local farmers. “We must give support to farmers in this coming harvest season”, Yap said, adding that the local government units must also extend their help.
He expects NFA personnel to get out from their respective offices in order to buy palay from farmers once the harvest season has started.

“We will continue to buy palay because our target is stability of the supply and the prices," Yap told newsmen while announcing that his office made available flat-bed dryers for use of farmers. President Arroyo, he said, made available P1.4 billion for flat-bed dryers, adding that more than 300 of these were already deployed in Central Luzon and Pangasinan. He said the NFA has proven its capability to distribute government subsidized rice sold at P18.25 and P25 per kilo, that stabilized prices of commercial rice. Warehouses must be prepared and trucks must be sent out to the farms to fetch palay from farmers instead of waiting for them to bring in their produce to the NFA in this coming rice harvest season, Yap said.