A total of P11,265,000 cash subsidy under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) of the Department of Agriculture (DA-6) was recently distributed among the smallholder rice farmers of Alimodian town in Iloilo.
The 2,253 recipients of cash aid in the said municipality are considered the first priority for the RFFA Program.
Based on the data posted by DA 6, Western Visayas has obtained P1.36 billion RFFA allocation this year from the excess of the P10 billion import tariffs generated in 2022.
With this, 87,000 rice farmers from Iloilo province, including the 11,908 growers from the second congressional district towns, are bound to receive financial support from the DA through the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and Universal Storefront Services Corporation (USSC).
Those who are only eligible to avail the cash assistance are rice farmers with not more than two hectares of landholdings and enrolled in the DA’s Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA).
Municipal agriculturist Chyta Calibayan noted that around 80 percent of farmers in Alimodian are into palay production, hence, making RFFA a significant addition to various interventions of the Department on top of its free seeds and machinery distribution, and technology training.
Calibayan added that the farmers in town could increase their 3.8 metric tons per hectare current average yield of palay, should they only utilize the DA assistance properly.
For the part of the local government unit (LGU), municipal mayor Ian Kenneth Alfeche commended the contribution of local farmers in ensuring food security and sustainability despite the existence of some pressing challenges in farming activities, both in production and marketing aspects.
Alfeche also assured DA of the LGU’s full support to all agricultural-related projects meant to improve farm productivity levels.
As stated in the Republic Act No. 11203 or Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), the RFFA serves as compensation for the projected income reduction of farmers resulting from liberalizing the quantitative import restrictions on rice.AAL/AGP/PIA 6 with reports from Department of Agriculture Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Information Section 6
