ILOILO – A total of 234,199 rice farmers in Western Visayas tilling land two hectares or less will benefit from the P1.17-billion Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Regional Executive Director Remelyn Recoter said the RFFA is from the excess of the P10-billion tariffs that have been allotted for mechanization, seeds, training, and financing.
“It was legislated that whatever excess of the tariff out of the P10 billion will be allocated for financial assistance,” she said in an interview Friday.
The funds of P5,000 each will be released through the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Recipient-farmers will be generated from the farmers who are in the DA’s Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture. A reference code will be released through their local government units to be presented during the payout.
Thursday last week, Dec. 9, the launch of the program in Oton town was attended by Secretary William Dar where 1,378 farmers received their grants along with their DA Interventions Monitoring Card, which is their unique and transactional card.
Dar, in his message, said Western Visayas is among the top contributors to meet the 19.4 million metric tons of palay production in the previous year.
The region has a 136 percent rice sufficiency level.
Aside from those from Oton, farmers from Janiuay and Santa Barbara, all in Iloilo province, and Negros Occidental, have received their grants ahead of Thursday last week’s launch.
Recoter, meanwhile, said the assistance could help in the domestic consumption of farmers, if not for the acquisition of rice inputs. (PNA)
