NFA touts reusable sacks for palay bought from farmers
The National Food Authority (NFA) on Friday unveiled a new bagging system to improve its efforts to maintain a buffer stock while reducing costs and improving the quality of palay.
The grains agency is projecting to save as much as P3.9 million—or P1.1 million to P1.3 million per warehouse—from piloting the one-ton bagging system in Nueva Ecija, Occidental Mindoro and Davao del Sur.
NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said the bagging system, also known as a jumbo bag or bulk bag, was a first in NFA history. Each “tonner” bag can accommodate 12 sacks of palay.
Lacson said the trial period for this system will provide the NFA with crucial data to determine whether the technology is viable for a nationwide implementation.
The NFA said the new packing method is estimated to boost warehouse capacity by up to 30 percent. It is also expected to deliver savings in expenses for manpower, fumigation, storage, transport and sacks.
The new bagging system costs P325 apiece. For instance, the NFA is spending P682,000 to procure 2,100 pieces of tonner bags for its Cabanatuan warehouse.
Although the new tonner bag is more expensive, Lacson said it can be reused up to five times.
At present, the NFA spends P15 each on printed sacks, plus additional labor costs, to store palay purchased from local farmers. Each sack can only be used once for this purpose.
“This is part of our broader effort to upgrade NFA’s storage capacity with minimal cost to the government,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement on Friday.
“By maximizing existing warehouse space, we can procure more palay from farmers and help address postharvest losses,” said Tiu Laurel, concurrently the NFA Council chair.
Airtight
Aside from the projected savings, the airtight bags help preserve grain quality by protecting against moisture, heat, insects and rodents.
Lacson said the NFA adopted this method following Tiu Laurel’s visit to Cambodia. The agriculture chief recognized the need to fast-track its implementation in the Philippines.
The NFA operates more than 300 warehouses across the archipelago. Upgrades are underway in some facilities to accommodate larger volumes of palay and milled rice.
At full capacity, an NFA warehouse built for a maximum of eight piles can store up to 55,440 bags of 50-kg sacks.
Lacson said the adoption of the new packing system is part of the NFA’s broader modernization efforts.
