ROSALES, Pangasinan – Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap told newsmen here recently that the National Food Authority (NFA) has no choice but to buy rice from farmers for the short term.

This is in view of the impending precarious rice situation not only in the Philippines but also in other parts of the world due to grains underproduction last year.

“NFA will have to continue buying rice. Walang choice ang NFA, if any one sells palay, this needs to be bought,” said Yap, in an interview after opening the 2008 Agricultural Exposition here.

He said in view of the precarious rice situation even in the world market where many of the rice exporters are no longer selling, there is a need to police the way the government injects rice into market.

Yap admitted that the prolonged drought as a result of El Niño that set in during the middle part of last year affected rice production in some areas.

There is a need to be careful in unloading rice into the market, he added, pointing out that it is not good to just unload and unload for as long as rice is available because when time comes that the country needs rice, there is always stock that can be tapped.

He said that in the localities, only the regular rice allocation of NFA should be released to authorized outlets.

“The job of the NFA is to make sure that there is rice in the market, so people will have something to eat,” he added.

At the same time, Yap said that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered that anybody in the NFA caught conniving with private traders to divert rice would be made to face a criminal case in court.

He said they are already doing this as one regional manager and two provincial managers are now being investigated.

At the same time, Yap said that the most important is, the government must continue to sustain Philippine agriculture as the country can not depend on imported rice alone. (PNA)