Cabanatuan: The National Food Authority (NFA) on Friday introduced its innovative 'tonner bag' system designed to streamline local palay (unhusked rice) procurement. The initiative is expected to save at least PHP3 million in operational costs while optimizing warehouse capacity. The initial implementation took place at the NFA warehouse in Cabanatuan City, with concurrent launches in Oriental Mindoro and Davao del Sur.
According to Philippines News Agency, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. stated that this move aligns with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s directive to modernize the agriculture sector and boost food security. "This is part of our broader effort to upgrade NFA's storage capacity at minimal cost to the government. By maximizing warehouse space, we can procure more palay from farmers and help reduce post-harvest losses," Laurel explained.
NFA Administrator Larry Lacson highlighted that the tonner bagging system was inspired by practices in Cambodia and other major rice-producing nations. He has commissioned a time-and-motion study to evaluate the efficiency gains of the new system. "In the current system, a farmer's bag is transferred to individual NFA sacks, which are sewn one by one. With the tonner bag, we simply fill, seal and store it immediately," Lacson noted.
Lacson projected PHP3 million in savings across the three pilot sites, with further savings anticipated from the reuse of tonner bags. He detailed that a single warehouse with a 60,000-bag capacity could achieve PHP1.1 million in savings. A tonner bag, capable of holding the equivalent of 12 standard NFA sacks, costs PHP325 but is reusable up to five times, compared to the single-use NFA sack priced at PHP15 each.
The cost savings could be redirected to purchasing more palay and covering additional costs like milling and drying. Lacson also addressed farmers' concerns over limited warehouse space, noting that the new system increases storage capacity by about 25 percent. "We don't stop in finding ways on how to efficiently use our warehouses because their call is that warehouses are already full. With this system, there will be an additional 25 percent capacity," he said.
Currently, the NFA purchases palay at PHP23/kg for clean and dry grains, and PHP17/kg for fresh and wet palay. Lacson assured that the quality of grains will not be compromised with the new system, as NFA's classifiers will maintain strict quality assurance protocols. "The quality will actually be better preserved. Moisture content fluctuations will be smaller because the tonner bags are thicker and less affected by environmental conditions," Lacson stated.
