About 600,000 farmers will receive this month the P5,000 cash assistance from the Finance department to help them cope with the liberalization of rice importation, Senator Cynthia Villar said Wednesday.
Villar, head of the Senate’s Agriculture and Food committee, denied reports that the Senate caused the removal of the P3 billion supposed to be given to the farmers-beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones on Wednesday raised concern over an anticipated shortage of future farmers that could put food security at risk.
“Mind you, the average age of our farmers is 57 years,” he told reporters.
“And most farmers want their children to finish college and leave farming, so that would be a sorry state for our agricultural sector.
“We want to reverse that kind of mentality. That is the reason why we are working hard and doing our best to improve the lives of our farmers.”
Villar lamented the report about the P3-billion subsidy as “fake news” being peddled by those opposing the liberalization of rice importation under the Rice Tariffication Law recently signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Instead, she said the P3 billion was transferred to the Land Bank of the Philippines and then distributed to the farmer-beneficiaries by the Department of Agriculture.
She said the department had a list of the 600,000 farmers who had less than one hectare of ricefield in order to qualify for the help.
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Next year, she said, the department would again give P5,000 cash to the beneficiaries. She said financial assistance would be given directly to the farmers and would no longer go through local government units.
“Perhaps similar to our CCT [Conditional cash transfer],” said Villar while referring to the transfer of funds to poor Filipinos who meet the criteria of the program that aims to help minimize property.
Villar also clarified that instead of the plan to give rice to the intended beneficiaries, the Agriculture department opted to give cash assistance.
She expressed hope the farmers could adjust with the rice importation liberalization because of the huge funding coming their way through the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.
For the next six years, she said, the farmers were guaranteed P10 billion in annual funds from the RCEF. She said the RCEF would address the perennial woes in the agriculture sector and help farmers and fishermen reduce their production cost and increase their productivity and income.
Under Republic Act 11203 or the rice tariffication law, Villar said, the P10-billion RCEF would have a P1-billion allocation for skills training of farmers and knowledge and technology transfer through farm schools nationwide.
The RCEF allocates P5 billion for the procurement of farm equipment by the Philippine Center for Post-harvest Development and Mechanization, P3 billion to the Philippine Rice Research Institute for the inbred seeds program, P1 billion for a cheap credit facility and P1 billion for skills development.
For clarity of functions and extension modality, PhilMech and PhilRice will provide ATI and TESDA with a training module and will conduct training of trainor classes. ATI and TESDA will promote the same training modules among farmers, via Farmers Field Schools and TESDA Accredited Farm Schools in identified rice-producing municipalities.
The skills training program will include courses that will enable farmers to operate and maintain farm equipment such as tillers, tractors, seeders, threshers, rice planters, harvesters, and irrigation pumps.
The machinery will be used for land preparation, crop establishment, harvesting and threshing, drying and milling.
Villar said the biggest number of farmer-beneficiaries would come from Nueva Ecija and Isabela. The others were from Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Tarlac, Mindoro Occidental, Mindoro Oriental, Iloilo, North Cotabato, Zamboanga del Sur, and Bukidnon. With Rio N. Araja
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