Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 7.2
Domestic procurement rate of the National Food Authority (NFA),
1976-80 to 1995-98
NFA
palay
Palay
production
procurement
Procurement rate
Period
(thousand tons)
(thousand tons)
(percent)
1976-80
36,341
2,752
7.57
1981-85
40,174
2,463
6.13
1986-90
45,536
2,039
4.48
1991-95
49,315
1,198
2.43
1996-98
32,557
286
0.88
SOURCE
: Data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, National Food Authority.
for 6.3 percent of total available supply (Table 7.3). However, that number
changed dramatically in the late 1990s. For instance, during 1997/98 and 1998/
99, the beginning stocks were estimated to be enough to feed the entire nation
for 98 days, higher than the strategic buffer norm of 90 days. Rice imports were
so excessive that by the end of June 1999, nationwide stock was at a record high
of 2.38 million tons, sufficient for 114 days of nationwide consumption. Yet
the shipments from foreign sources continued to arrive for the remainder of the
year.
To understand how this change could have happened, one needs to dig
deeper into the matter. The country has an Inter-Agency Committee (IAC), cur-
rently chaired by the Department of Agriculture, which is tasked with provid-
ing assessments of the supply and demand that serve as input to NFA's import
decision. NFA and the Department of Agriculture prepare a joint recommen-
dation to the NFA Council on the volume and timing of imports, a procedure
that has been followed even during the years when NFA was attached to the Of-
fice of the President. Upon approval by the NFA Council, the secretary of the
Department of Agriculture and the NFA administrator jointly or separately re-
quest from the president the authority to import.
However, since 1998, there have been cases in which decisions to import
rice were made outside of the IAC process. In a meeting of IAC in August 1998,
the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics confirmed that the final estimate of
palay
production for 1997/98 was 10.7 percent below the previous crop year's pro-
duction because of delayed planting in all regions, particularly in Central Lu-
zon, Southern Mindanao, and Central Mindanao. However, NFA had an esti-
mated stock of 1.93 million tons, enough for 92 days. Based on these estimates,
IAC recommended that additional rice imports be decided on the basis of the
October forecast of production. In September 1998, when the October forecast
of production was not yet available, NFA was able to secure authority from the
president to import 650,000 tons of rice.
