DA TO DISTRIBUTE CASH AID TO SMALL RICE FARMERS

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to begin the distribution of cash aid to rice farmers next week as palay prices at the farm gate have plummeted to as low as P10 a kilogram in some provinces.

Noel Reyes, DA spokesperson, confirmed in a phone interview with the Inquirer that rice farmers who were registered in the agency’s official registry and tilling two hectares of land or less were entitled to receive P5,000 each, the funding for which would be taken from excess collections under the rice tariffication law.

According to Agriculture Secretary William Dar, excess tariff collection from rice imports that arrived since the implementation of the rice law in 2019 to last year had reached P7.7 billion.

It was last year when the Senate, through the endorsement of Sen. Cynthia Villar who chairs the agriculture committee, had allowed the government to use any excess in the rice tariff collections to provide financial assistance to smallscale rice farmers who were adversely affected by the rice industry’s deregulation.

The distribution, slated to start on Oct. 16, will begin in Guagua, Pampanga.

Rice farmers have been clamoring for aid due to the alarming drop in the farm-gate prices of rice to as low as P10 a kilo and an average of P14 a kilo. The cost of producing a kilo of palay is P11.

Provinces that were hit by tropical storm “Maring” may experience another drop in palay prices as wet crops are sold at lower prices .

In a statement, the Federation of Free Farmers said that while it welcomed the DA’s cash assistance plan, it described the program as “a palliative that is too little too late.”