DA: Select farmers to get P5,000 assistance

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Sunday said it will distribute some P3-billion worth of assistance to local farmers who tilled a hectare or less of land and were affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) threat.

According to the DA, the Land Bank of the Philippines will start distributing a P5,000 cash subsidy this week under the Financial Subsidy to Rice Farmers (FSRF) program to qualified farmers or those located in provinces not covered by the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) Program.

"Our rice farmers will receive it as a direct cash transfer that they can use to buy either farm inputs, food for their families or anything they need," Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a statement.

"The FSRF is another intervention to further support our farmers who are experiencing the effects of the quarantine measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he elaborated.

The FSRF is bankrolled under the 2020 general appropriations act (GAA), similar to the RFFA which covers farmers that till up to two hectares of land that covered an earlier batch of 600,000 farmers given P5,000 each.

Just last week, the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) called for more government funding for farmers, citing a looming food crisis the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had warned against.

"We vow to continue helping our small rice farmers, by implementing not only the FSRF and RFFA, but also other major programs such as the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), the SURE Aid loan assistance program, and continuous palay-buying through the National Food Authority -- to boost farmers’ productivity and incomes," said Dar.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) last month also approved a P31-billion supplemental budget for the DA to finance the national "Plant, Plant, Plant" Program. — DVM, GMA News