Bangsal, N. V. (2016). The role of the National Food Authority under a post-quantitative restriction regime (Unpublished master's thesis). Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management and Development Program. Batch 5 Senior Executives Class. Thesis (SEC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

Like other agricultural parastatals in Asia, the NFA was tasked with multiple, often conflicting objectives: keep farmgate prices at levels that provide farmers with a reasonable income, and retail prices at levels that gives affordability to low-income consumers. However, it does so at a high cost, partly due to operational inefficiency but largely owing to its fundamental policy mandate. Taking all these factors together, the social benefits of stabilizing rice prices appear to be negligible relative to the cost of NFA operations. Public clamor for reforms in the NFA has been resounding as the agency incurs high costs for services that may be provided differently and more effectively. Other than the fiscal implications, current discussions on NFA reforms have cited the impending expiration of the quantitative restrictions (QRs) on rice import in 2017 as a key condition for a major policy shift. So, what will be the role of NFA in a post-QR regime? at the onset, it is important to underline that government will still have a role, albeit diminished in scale, under this scenario. With millions of people living in poverty and many geographic locations lagging behind, the government will remain an active player as it deals with market failures due to volatility of commodity price, as well as production capacity. After considering the evaluation criteria set by this paper, it recommends Option 3-buffer stocking operations/de-coupling NFA-as the appropriate reform direction for NFA. In a nutshell, what seems to be themost sensible course of action is to trim down NFA's focus towards primarily the management of the strategic reserves, monitoring of the global rice market that will help the government decide on the appropriate tariff on rice imports, and monitoring or regulating the private sector to prevent collusion and monopoly at the local level.