Abstract:
The importance of rice (and corn) in the Philippine economy lies
in the fact that it is consumed by about 85% of the Filipino population.
It comprises 24% of the consumer's food basket and 13% of the
consumer’s market basket. As such any change in its price has a
significant and direct effect on the consumer’s purchasing power and
cost of living.
The National Food Authority was initially created to promote the
integrated development of the grains industry and later including raw,
fresh, processed and manufactured food products. Being in the
forefront of providing marketing and infrastructure assistance to
farmers, the NFA must primarily attend to providing reasonable
income to farmers and to all the stakeholders of the grains industry.
With the advent of globalization, farmers are caught unprepared
for the impending liberalization and deregulation of the grains sector.
This paper examines the effectiveness of the government, through the NFA,
in assisting in the development of farmers’ cooperatives like the
Shalom MPCI in Tago, Surigao del Sur. Further, it will present a
glimpse of the efficacy of NFA in addressing the needs of farmers and
farmer organizations through its various programs and projects.
