A total of P100 billion worth of assistance, aside from the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, was released to Filipino farmers during the transition to rice tariffication, said Senator Cynthia Villar.
Villar, chairman of the Senate agriculture and food committee, said the farmers started last year to receive the benefits of the law through seed distribution, credit and extension programs.
Soon, Villar farm machinery will be distributed to rice-producing towns under the law’s mechanization program.
She noted that this is also provided under Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law.
The senator, however, admitted a delay in the distribution of farm machinery due to the change of leadership in the Department of Agriculture—from Emmanuel Piñol to William Dar although SARO-BMB-E-20-001084 was already received for the amount of P5 billion.
Aside from the P10-billion RCEF, LandBank and the DA Agricultural Credit Policy Council implemented the P4.8-billion Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program or SURE AID which provided a one-time loan assistance of P15,000 at percent interest for eight years.
This program, Villar said, helped rice farmers with farms measuring one hectare and below whose income were affected by the drop in the farmgate price of palay.
She said P3-billion unconditional cash assistance was implemented to benefit the small farmers. The program was funded by the Department of Finance and provided P5,000 each to 600,000 farmers owning one hectare and below.
To ensure that the palay produce of local farmers will be bought at a reasonable price, P7-billion was allocated under the National Food Authority to procure palay from local farmers.
The P31 billion budget for rice subsidy under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program was also used to procure rice from local farmers and distributed to beneficiary households.
Farmers also received assistance under the P7 billion National Rice Program which included provision for hybrid seeds, fertilizer for inbred seeds, irrigation support and rehabilitation and improvement of small scale irrigation projects; agriculture, machinery, equipment and facilities support services; extension services; and research and development.
Assistance to farmers was also funded in the National Irrigation Administration worth P36 billion; P1 billion allocation to the PhilMech/PhilRice; and Farm to Market Roads worth P9.9 billion.
Villar said improvement of our country’s credit rating was also attributed to the enactment of the law which allowed us to save about P35 billion in interest payments of our government’s loans from other countries.