1.5M rice farmers get P5-K aid this year

PNA
23 Dec 2021, 18:27 GMT+10

MANILA - The Department of Agriculture (DA) projects a high number of rice farmer beneficiaries during the first year of distribution of aid under the Rice Farmer Financial Assistance (RFFA) program.

"Some 1.5 million rice farmers are estimated to get PHP5,000 aid this year," DA Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said in a public briefing on Thursday.

In data presented by the agency, the accumulated excess tariff in 2019 from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) reached PHP2.1 billion, while the excess tariff from the Development Bank of the Philippines in 2020 summed up to PHP5.5 billion.

This means around PHP7.6 billion fund will go to about 1.5 million rice farmer beneficiaries who are tilling two hectares and below of land.

"Sa susunod na taon, depende na rin sa koleksyon. At ito ay mangyayari hangga't in effect ang Rice Tariffication Law (The projected number of beneficiaries next year will be determined by how much excess tariff we will get. This will remain in effect as long as the Rice Tariffication Law is being implemented)," de Mesa added.

The RFFA is an unconditional cash transfer program which aims to provide PHP5,000 financial assistance each to rice farmers tilling 0.5 to two hectares of land in 33 provinces nationwide.

Aside from the RFFA, the DA has partnered with LandBank to implement other financial assistance programs, such as the PHP10-billion PAlay aLAY sa Magsasaka ng Lalawigan (PALAY ng Lalawigan).

The program aims to assist rice-producing provinces by enabling local government units (LGUs) to procure palay produced by their local farmers, as well as to acquire farm machinery and post-harvest facilities.

Another is the Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program for Rice Farmers (SURE Aid Program) which extended credit assistance to small farmers tilling one hectare of land and below.

Under the program, a total of PHP2.07 billion in loans were provided as immediate financial assistance to 136,648 farmers nationwide. (PNA)

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