By Christine Cudis | Philippine News Agency
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 P5,000 aid this year,” DA Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said in a public briefing on Thursday (Dec. 23).
In data presented by the agency, the accumulated excess tariff in 2019 from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) reached P2.1 billion, while the excess tariff from the Development Bank of the Philippines in 2020 summed up to P5.5 billion.
This means around P7.6 billion 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 koleksiyon. At ito ay mangyayari hangga’t in effect ang Rice Tariffication Law,” de Mesa added.
The RFFA is an unconditional cash transfer program which aims to provide P5,,000 financial assistance each to rice farmers tilling half a hectare 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 P10 billion PAlay aLAY sa Magsasaka ng Lalawigan (PALAY ng Lalawigan).
The program aims to assist rice-producing provinces by enabling local government units to procure palay produced by their local farmers, as well as 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 P2.07 billion in loans were provided as immediate financial assistance to 136,648 farmers nationwide. (PNA) – jlo
