COTABATO CITY – The National Food Authority in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (NFA-ARMM) assured the public there would be no rice shortage despite adverse weather conditions that hit the region’s rice and corn areas.

Pangalian B. Busran, regional manager of NFA-ARMM said this would mean that the region will have a stable supply and prices of rice both farm and consumer levels in the near term. He said the NFA is ready for the onset of the lean season for rice, which is from June to September.

The grains agency also issued a guarantee that there would be enough and ready supply of the prime staple even during natural and man-made calamities. “We supervise our supply and retail prices in the market and rice dealers selling NFA rice,” Busran said.

The region has a current total industry inventory of 118,000 bags of rice for the five provinces in the region. The agency is selling rice at P27 per kilo for 25% broken grain and P32 per kilo for 15% broken grain through roughly a thousand registered NFA outlets across the region. Busran said the NFA will file charges against traders who would be engaged in unfair business practices.

Iskak Paguital, chief of staff of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries-ARMM, said the department is expecting to procure a total of 214,348 metric tons of palay for the second quarter of the year.

Paguital said the DAF-ARMM distributed P1.8 million worth of farm machineries to pre-identified farmer cooperatives in Maguindanao, as well as hybrid palay seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides to 2,461 farmers. The Agriculture department also distributed recently 1,500 kilos of seaweeds to five fisheries cooperatives. (Bureau of Public Information)

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