ILOILO City – Rice farmers from Panay Island were able to benefit from the Emergency Rice Support Project (ERSP) of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
KOICA procured the palay produce of Panay farmers for donation to more than 33,000 vulnerable and poor households in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The agency allocated P20 million for the procurement of 4,000 bags of locally-produced rice.
An initial of 2,000 bags of rice were procured by KOICA through the local government unit (LGU) of San Miguel in Iloilo and was turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development National Resource Operation Center in Pasay City on July 17.
Aside from farmers, indigents and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries also benefited from the project.
They were able to earn P300 per day by repacking the rice stocks into six-kilogram packs ready for distribution to Metro Manila households.
The San Miguel LGU, tapped to lead the procurement of rice stocks here, is KOICA’s recipient of the Regional Local Food Terminal (LFT) under the Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project.
On Oct. 19, LFT San Miguel shipped the initial 800 bags of rice to Metro Manila for the second cycle of the ERSP implementation.
Bayanihan Tipon Center (BTC) Patnongon and BTC Jamindan will deliver the remaining 1,200 bags of rice to the LFT within this week.
Department of Agriculture regional executive director Remelyn Recoter said the ERSP, one of KOICA’s pandemic response efforts, was among the several rural development projects they had implemented in the region.
“Thank you KOICA Philippines for helping our Panay rice farmers,” she said.
Meanwhile, Jose Pepe Caoyonan, chairman of San Miguel Farmers Agriculture Cooperative, said they were thankful to KOICA’s ERSP for it significantly boosted their LFT marketing operations.
He underscored that it also helped Panay rice farmers sell their palay at a higher price to the Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka ng Patnongon in Antique, Jamindan Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and SIDC in Tapaz, Capiz and the Iloilo Rice Processing Complex in Pototan, Iloilo. (With a report from DA-RAFIS 6/PN)
