DA to spend more for subsidies to boost palay production

MANILA, Philippines — The government will spend over the next two years P9 billion for subsidies to boost the income of Philippine palay farmers and increase the country’s rice supply, the Department of (DA) on Thursday. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the government plans to finance the subsidies from the 12% expanded Value-Added Tax (eVAT) on oil products for the National Seed Program alone. Yap said some P1.68 billion will be used to augment subsidies for palay farmers starting this wet or main crop in the form of certified seeds. On top of this , is another P6.5 billion for the intensified palay procurement program of the National Food Authority (NFA) this main harvest season, with the NFA to purchase as high as 500,000 metric tons from farmers, or about 1,460% higher than the 32,044 metric tons of palay it acquires from local growers at the government support price during the same period last year. He said that for the dry crop in 2009, which will cover 1.80 million hectares of land, the DA is poised to distribute seed subsidies to farmers so they can plant hybrid seeds in some 300,000 hectares and certified seeds in 1.50 million hectares. Such subsidies coming from the “Katas ng VAT" will given, he said, at an equivalent of P1,500 per farmer/hectare for those planting hybrid seeds or P1,200 for those planting certified seeds. At the onset of the dry or summer crop, the NFA support price was almost doubled to P17 from P12 to increase the farmers’ incomes and encourage them to plant more crops this wet crop and onwards, in line with the rice sufficiency goal. Just recently, the President also directed the DA and NFA to increase the latter’s support price for corn from P8.50 per kilogram to P13 per kilogram for white corn and from P7 to P10 per kilogram for yellow corn. Each sack of certified palay seeds under the subsidy program can generate up to 120 sacks of palay or 60 sacks of milled rice. The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) is also ready to provide P7 billion in microfinance loans, which farmers can avail of to improve their crop production, Yap said. - D'JAY LAZARO, GMANews.TV