DA continues rice farmers’ cash assistance distribution

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) continues to distribute cash assistance to eligible rice farmers, as over 200 farmers are set to receive their P5,000 assistance this month.

In a statement, the DA said a total of 203 rice farmers from Barangays Butige and Cabuan in Paracelis, Mountain Province are scheduled to claim their financial assistance this month under the rice farmers financial assistance (RFFA) program.

The DA’s Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), in partnership with the municipal local government unit (LGU), has already distributed the claim stubs to the eligible rice farmers.

“Distribution is also ongoing to other rice-farming areas in the region covered by RFFA since its regional launch in October last year,”the DA said.

The RFFA is a direct cash transfer to qualified rice farmers, primarily as compensation for their projected income loss due to the drop of palay (unhusked rice) price.

Under the RFFA, rice farmers tilling two hectares or less will receive P5,000 in unconditional cash assistance.

The program sources its fund from the rice tariffs collected annually in excess of the P10 billion allocated for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

Agriculture Secretary William Dar earlier said more rice farmers would receive cash assistance this year as the country collected over P8 billion in excess tariffs from rice imports last year.

“Last year, the collection reached P8.8 billion, which means that we will reach out and help more farmers,” Dar said.

Dar was recently in the province of Bohol where he awarded P267.7 million worth of cash assistance under the RFFA to 52,819 farmer-beneficiaries in the province.

Dar said the distributed cash assistance came from the excess tariffs collected in 2020.

In November, the DA began distributing cash assistance from excess tariffs collected from 2019 and 2020, the first two years of the implementation of the Rice Tarification Law (RTL) amounting to a combined P7.6 billion.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the DA aims to start the distribution of the RFFA by March or April.

De Mesa said the recent signing of Republic Act 11598 or the Cash Assistance for Filipino Farmers Act by President Duterte,which mandates the DA to provide cash transfers to rice farmers tilling two hectares or less until 2024,  would streamline the implementation of the RFFA as the Bureau of Customs  would be allowed to automatically remit the excess tariff collections to the DA.

Before the signing of the law, the excess tariff revenues had to be earmarked by Congress and included in the General Appropriations Act of the following year for other purposes.

This was done in the case of the excess tariffs collected in 2019 and 2020, which was only distributed in 2021.