General Santos City – The National Food Authority (NFA) is set to buy corn worth P8 million from farmers in Sarangani Province and this city following the drop in the prices of the grain, an NFA official said.

Ram Malana, NFA manager for Sarangani-General Santos City Office, said the agency would initially buy about 10,000 bags directly from farmers worth P8 million to help them due to the plunge in the price of corn.

He said commercial traders have lowered their buying price for corn from P12 per kilogram down to about P8.90 to P9 prompting farmers in Sarangani and this city to troop to the NFA office to avail of better price.

“The drop in the price of corn was due to the bumper harvest for the crop season this August to September period following the economic principle in the law of supply and demand – more supply, the demand is low,” Malana said in an interview.

NFA’s support price for corn, Malana said, is P12.70 per kilo including incentives of 20 centavos for drying and another 20 centavos for delivery.

For cooperative member-farmers, the support price is P13 per kilogram – broken down as P12.30 for the base price plus incentives of 30 centavos for the coop development incentive fund (CDIF), 20 centavos for drying and another 20 centavos for delivery.

He said that Southern Mindanao NFA Regional Director Tony dela Cruz assured him that NFA Administrator Jessup Navarro would provide the region with enough funds to procure corn to help farmers when the price is low.