Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has directed the National Food Authority to begin transferring rice stocks to the Visayas in preparation for the launch of the P20-per-kilo rice program, following the Commission on Elections approval to roll out the initiative.
The Department of Agriculture said the rice will come from the NFA’s buffer stocks, which reached a five-year high of 7.17 million 50-kilogram bags of milled rice. As of the latest data, the inventory has risen further to 7.56 million bags—enough to feed the country for an estimated 10 days.
“It will take several weeks to transfer tens, even hundreds of thousands of 50-kilo bags from NFA warehouses,…