DA-CAR's assistance helps farmer cooperatives, enterprises profit P46.6M

Guisad, Baguio City – Around eight farmer cooperatives and three local enterprises made a total sale of P46,660,800 after the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office of Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-RFO-CAR) through the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division (AMAD) intervened to help them sell their produce amidst the pandemic.

Products sold were around 726,151 kg of rice, chicken and eggs from the members’ farms through a direct link to consumers by transporting the goods to the markets and fair trades of the DA.

Banayakeo Sustainable Livelihood Program Association (SLPA) adviser, Aljun Garcia, said that this program lessened the burden of farmers in transporting and selling their products to the market, especially that they cannot compete with the big enterprises.

According to DA-CAR Press Release No. 21-11, P3,000 cash assistance and an additional P2,000 e-vouchers for marketing goods from their products were also distributed to each member.

Beneficiaries include the Banayakeo SLPA, Apayao Seed Producers MPC, including nine more FCAs and enterprises; the Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ADTEMPCO), Drivers, Operators, Employees, Residents and other Sectors-Multipurpose Cooperative (DOERS-MPC), Happy Hallow Livelihood MPC, Sagada MPC, Saint Williams MPC, Malayugan Rice Granary Farmers Association, Debbies Market Market, FM Agromix, and ZKA Agricultural Trading.

Cash and Food Subsidy for Marginal Farmers and Fisherfolk (CFSMFF) program was also conducted from February-June 2021 to assist in revitalizing their economy amidst COVID-19.

DA-CAR is continuously monitoring the program since there are still 9,715 listed beneficiaries who are yet to claim their cash and food subsidy.

Cash and Food Subsidy for Marginal Farmers and Fisherfolk Program (CFSMFF) in CAR

In support of the Republic Act No. 11494 or “Bayanihan to Recover as One-Act,”

the program provides secured and direct food and financial assistance to eligible beneficiaries identified by the DA, BFAR, and NCIP

DA reports that the P4.5-billion CFSMFF program aims to provide a secured, direct food and financial assistance to farmers and fishers in the country whose income are severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

BFAR cited that the CFSMFF program is giving P5,000.00 to eligible RSBSA-registered beneficiaries from different sectors in Agriculture and Fisheries, of which P3,000 shall be given in cash, while the P 2,000 is given as rice worth P1,000, chickens worth P600, and eggs worth P400 to the beneficiaries.

Eligible beneficiaries are farmers of corn, coconut and sugarcane; fishermen; and indigenous people (IP) who are also farmers and fisherfolk.

In the Cordillera, a total of 9,460 fisherfolk, sugar, and corn farmers benefited. Ifugao, with the highest number, has 2,827 farmer-beneficiaries, followed by Kalinga with 2,196. Other provinces included for the identification of beneficiaries are Abra, Mountain Province, Apayao, and Benguet.

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