Legazpi City—In an effort to alleviate the lives of the rice farmers in Bicol, the Department of Agriculture handed over P5,000 cash assistance to 100 farmers in Albay.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar led the distribution of cash assistance to rice farmers held at Albay Astrodome over the weekend here.
The P5,000 financial assistance to rice farmers is part of the P10 billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund-Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RCEF-RFFA) fund.
The initial 100 farmers chosen and benefitted from DA’s RCEF-RFFA financial assistance to marginalized farmers in Albay are tilling riceland at least two hectares and below.
But before the P5,000 cash assistance was given to beneficiaries, the DA provided validated rice farmers their respective interventions monitoring card or IMC that will serve as identification and cash card.
“The farmers qualified to receive the RCEF-RFFA are those rice farmers registered with a registry system for basic sectors in agriculture whose landholdings are two hectares and below,” the DA official said.
Dar visited Legazpi City during the launching and initial distribution of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund-Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RCEF-RFFA) to Bicol farmers to personally hand over the given P5,000 unconditional cash assistance from RCEF-RFFA fund.
The funds for the RCEFF-RFFA came from the excess tariffs from the P10 billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) institutionalized through RA 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law.
The law seeks to improve rice farmers income and lower the cost of rice production by 30 percent through the provision of machineries, seeds, credit and extension. Dar also handed over farm tools and machineries among the rice farmers’ organizations here in Albay.
The DA also partnered with Squidpay Technology for the payment of the cash assistance. The distribution of cash assistance will continue until the end of December this year.
Rodel P. Tornilla, DA Bicol regional director said that a total of 111,880 rice farmers regionwide will be given P5,000 cash assistance.
Among the six provinces of Bicol, Camarines Sur has the highest rice farmers to be given with P5,000 assistance through the RCEF-RFFA with 33,602 followed by Albay with 28,296 farmers, Sorsogon, 18, 705; Masbate, 17, 829; Camarines Norte, 7,843 and Catanduanes with 5, 605.
It said that the DA has already transferred a total of P446.7 million to the Development Bank of the Philippines to be distributed to the first batch of farmers.
Similarly, Tornilla said that the department is still waiting for the SARO of the P118.8 million RCEF-RFFA fund to be transferred to the Land Bank of the Philippines. (By: Raneza Sabina Natalia)