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| Pambansang Pangasiwaan ng Pagkain | |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | September 26, 1972; 53 years ago (1972-09-26) |
| Headquarters | Visayas Avenue,Quezon City 1128,Metro Manila, Philippines |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Department of Agriculture |
| Website | www |
TheNational Food Authority (NFA;Filipino:Pambansang Pangasiwaan ng Pagkain) is an agency of the Philippine government under theDepartment of Agriculture responsible for maintaining sufficient rice buffer stock to be sourced solely from local farmers and distributed efficiently especially during calamities and emergencies, the Philippines'staple grain.
The National Food Authority was created by PresidentFerdinand Marcos through Presidential Decree No. 4 dated September 26, 1972, under the name National Grains Authority (NGA) with the mission of promoting the integrated growth and development of the grains industry covering rice, corn,feed grains and other grains likesorghum,mung beans, and peanuts.[1] This decree abolished two agencies, namely, theRice and Corn Board (RICOB) and theRice and Corn Administration (RCA) and absorbed their respective functions into the NFA. The former was then regulating the rice and corn retail trade and was tasked to nationalize it within a target date. The latter was marketed and distributed government low-priced rice especially during lean months. In addition, the new agency was vested with additional functions aimed at developingpost-harvest systems and processes.
Among others, the NGA supported the paddy production program of the government referred to as theMasagana 99 agricultural program, which was geared toward rice self-sufficiency. It engaged in massive paddy procurement at government support prices, and with limited volume, the country joined the family of rice exporting countries from 1977 to 1981. Economists[2] generally acknowledge Masagana 99 to have failed because the supervised credit scheme it offered to farmers proved unsustainable.[2]
On January 14, 1981, Presidential Decree No. 1770 renamed the NGA and established the National Food Authority (NFA), further widening the agency's social responsibilities and commodity coverage to include, in addition to grains, other food items like raw or fresh fruits and vegetables and fish and marine, manufactured, processed, or packaged food products, and these were collectively referred to as non-grains commodities.[3] This law was the basis of the Kadiwa stores or government retail stores, which sold low-priced basic food and household items which were established within the National Capital Region and in all theprovinces of the Philippines.
On May 31, 1985, Executive Order No. 1028 provided for the deregulation of NFA's non-grains marketing activities, specifically terminating NFA's non-grains trading activities, returning feed grains and wheat importation to the private sector, and lifting price controls on rice and corn.[4] As such, at the end of 1986, all the Kadiwa Stores had sold or closed.
Today, the National Food Authority is charge with ensuring the food security of the country and the stability of supply and price of the staple grain-rice. It performs these functions through various activities and strategies, which include procurement of paddy from individual farmers and their organizations, buffer stocking, processing activities, dispersal of paddy and milled rice to strategic locations and distribution of the staple grain to various marketing outlets at appropriate times of the year.
In recent years, in response to globalization and to the efforts to reduce the national budget deficit, the government has been looking into the possibility of restructuring, streamlining or privatizing certain activities of the NFA.
On May 5, 2014, Executive Order No. 165 signed by PresidentBenigno Aquino III reassigned the National Food Authority and three other agencies to the Office of the President,[5] with oversight responsibilities for the four agencies given toFrancis Pangilinan in the newly created post ofPresidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization. Then-NFA administratorOrlan Calayag stepped down in what he described as a "courtesy resignation" so that Pangilinan could appoint his own preferred candidate to head the NFA.[6][7]
On July 4, 2016, NFA was among the 12 agencies, formerly from the Office of the President reassigned to theOffice of the Cabinet Secretary, based on Executive Order No. 1 issued by PresidentRodrigo Duterte.[8] It was restored to the Department of Agriculture, along with thePhilippine Coconut Authority and theFertilizer and Pesticide Authority, by Executive Order No. 62 issued in September 2018.[9]
TheOmbudsman of the Philippines’ issued a 6 monthspreventive suspension order effective on March 4, 2024 against Administrator Roderico R. Bioco and 138 other officials and employees, including Assistant Administrator for Operations John Robert Hermano and several regional managers and warehouse supervisors nationwide.Imee Marcos filedSenate Resolution 940 on March 4, 2024 "to investigate, in aid of legislation, the NFA's alleged irregular disposition and sale of repacked rice stocks to rice traders at low prices.probe into 'irregular' sale of NFA rice sought."[10][11] On March 19, 2024, Director Larry Lacson has been named as NFAOfficer in Charge after the Office of theOmbudsman of the Philippines's 6-monthsuspension administrator, Roderico Bioco.[12]
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