Agriculture Secretary Francisco Laurel Tiu Jr., San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, and other local officials pose for a photo with a beneficiary during the kickoff sale of NFA rice.
Low-income families are taking advantage of the affordable rice from the Department of Agriculture (DA) being sold at P33 per kilo by some local governments in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Evelyn Gapar, a 45-year-old housewife from Barangay West Crame in San Juan City found relief in the affordable rice sold by the local government.
A 50-kilogram sack of rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) is at P1,650. The purchase limit for each family is only one sack.
With a family of four, including her husband, who earns minimum wage, and two boys in high school, Evelyn needed to be resourceful and adaptable to keep daily expenses under control.
“Makatutulong po siya sa amin, sa pamilya ko kasi sobrang mahal na ng bigas ngayon and nakukuha niya halos 50 percent ng budget namin, so maganda po itong programa na ito,” Evelyn said. (This can help my family because rice is very expensive now and eats up nearly 50 percent of our budget, so this program is good.)
The local government’s Murang Bigas Program is one of the initiatives of the DA, in response to the food security emergency declaration.
As part of this effort, NFA is selling its rice stocks at a lower price to help control the rapid rise in rice prices.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel Jr. is optimistic that the initiative will help consumers and their families cut on their daily expenses.
“Ito pong ating ginagawa ay napaka-importante na gumaan ng kaunti ang gastos ng bawat pamilya, at mas marami pang mabili ang isang mamimili dahil sa mas mababang presyo ng bigas.” (What we are doing is very important to ease the expenses of each family, and a consumer can buy more because of the lower price of rice.)
For his part, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora highlighted the importance of the initiative during these challenging times.
“Providing affordable rice to our residents is a priority for the City Government of San Juan. Through this program, we are ensuring that our constituents have access to quality food at a low price, especially in these challenging times.”
Zamora also mentioned that they will be able to order more rice if demand increases.
It can be recalled that the National Government recently declared a Food Security Emergency in response to fluctuating rice prices and supply concerns.
To start, the NFA has distributed rice stocks to local government units to streamline processing and payment.
LGUs that want to sell NFA rice are encouraged to reach out to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to begin their partnership request. (JVD/PIA-NCR)
