LAOAG CITY, May 15 -- The National Food Authority (NFA) in Ilocos Norte province has started to secure its stockpile for the rainy days, with around 43,177 sacks of rice purchased from local farmers at PHP30 per kilo from April 22 to May 13, 2024.

"The PHP30 per kilo buying price of NFA is a big help to our farmers as we used to buy PHP23 per kilo from them," NFA-Ilocos Norte branch manager Engineer Jonathan Corpuz said in a media interview on Wednesday.

Bulk of the supply was bought from farmers from this city, as well as from the towns of San Nicolas, Bacarra, Dingras, Marcos, Solsona, and Nueva Era.

Corpuz said they target to buy additional 7,000 sacks of rice, at 50 kilos per sack, this week to have a stockpile of around 70,000 sac...