The National Food Authority (NFA; ) is an agency of the Philippine government under the Department 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.
History
The National Food Authority was created by President Ferdinand 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 like sorghum, mung beans, and peanuts.[1] This decree abolished two agencies, namely, the Rice and Corn Board (RICOB) and the Rice 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 developing post-harvest systems and processes.
Among others, the NGA supported the paddy production program of the government referred to as the Masagana 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.