Tabuk City, Kalinga – A total of 10,225 rice farmers in the province are the beneficiaries of the P51,125,000 cash assistance from the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera to be distributed this August and September.
The aid is aimed at helping them shoulder the burden of paying for farm inputs.
According to DA-Cordillera, the assistance was made possible through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund – Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RCEF-RFFA) Program, which is under RA 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law.
Under RA 11203, financial aid to palay growers is one of the possible uses for rice import tariffs over the PHP10 billion set aside each year for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
Recipients are set to receive P5,000 each from the agricultural department.
7,861 farmers in the province are getting their assistance this week, while the other 2,364 rice farmers are set to receive theirs next month with no fixed schedule as of this writing.
Beneficiaries from 5 municipalities of the province have been scheduled for their pay-out from August 25 to September 3, 2022, according to DA-Cordillera.
2,151 are farmers from Pinukpuk, 3,428 from Tabuk City, 844 from Tanudan, 740 from Rizal and 698 from Tinglayan.
Those scheduled for next month are recipients from Balbalan, Lubuagan and Pasil.
Who are eligible for the assistance?
In a press release, DA-Cordillera said that those registered in the Registry System for Basic Sector in Agriculture (RSBSA) as of March 31, 2022 are eligible to avail of the program.
The agency highlighted that they should own or are tilling farms about two hectares and below.
However, farmers are given different levels of priority, and the priority will be based on how frequently they receive cash support from the government.
Other recipients in Cordillera
Aside from Kalinga, 15,062 rice farmers will be provided with the same assistance in Abra, 10,482 in Mt. Province, and 2,824 in Benguet.
Some will receive their cash aid through simultaneous pay-outs in the region while others will get theirs through store pay-outs in USSC (Universal Storefront Services Corporation) branches– a partner of DA-Cordillera in the program implementation.
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