THE National Food Authority (NFA) Council on Thursday approved higher buying prices for "palay," or unmilled rice, to improve the incomes of local rice farmers.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa told reporters that the new buying prices would range from P17 to P23 per kilo for fresh or wet palay and P23 to P30 per kilo for dry produce.

This marked the second increase of palay buying prices under the current administration.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last year ordered that the buying price for dry palay be set at P23 per kilo from P19 and for wet, P19 from P16.

De Mesa said the buying price was increased in order for the NFA to catch up with prices offered by traders.

"If we look at it, what the NFA can buy now is really limited. Our prevailing prices at the farmgate range from P22 to P25. The national average is P26.9. So if the NFA's buying price is P23, it really can't buy anything or very minimal," he added.

The NFA will not immediately offer the new buying prices as there is an ongoing program under the agency called Palay Marketing Assistance Program for Legislators and Local Government Units (Pallgu), de Mesa said.

"In areas with Pallgu, LGUs procure and add additional funds. For example, if they offer an amount, let's say one to five pesos, and the NFA's price is P23, they'll offer you P2, making it P25," he explained.

The agency will also implement new guidelines for the release of NFA rice, which will be through an auction. It was previously on a first-come, first-serve basis.

NFA officer in charge Larry Lacson said that the price range did not necessarily mean that the buying prices would be the highest.

"There's no uniform price nationwide like before. It's on a per province basis, as we know that the price of palay varies in different places," Lacson said, adding that they would issue a price bulletin for each province.

He said that they aimed to implement the new palay price by next week. "For now, we'll just come up with the written, polished SOP (standard operating procedure) or rule to guide everyone. We'll rush that today to really document everything."