The Department of Agriculture (DA) said it allotted P1.5 billion from its national rice program budget to help Filipino rice farmers affected by the implementation of a law that removed the quantitative restriction on the staple.
The DA said the supplemental budget will be used for the fertilizer program that will be carried out simultaneously with the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
The RCEF, which was created by Republic Act (RA) 11203, allots P5 billion for rice farm equipment, P3 billion for seed development, P1 billion for credit and another P1 billion for extension service.
Under the fertilizer program, the DA said in a statement that the government will implement the “buy 2 take 2” scheme which will allow planters to get two bags of urea for free if they purchase two bags.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar announced the availability of the supplemental budget during a Farmers’ Forum held in San Fernando, Pampanga, on November 30.
“The Department has also created new credit programs for farmers and fishers to help hem increase productivity and income,” said Dar.
Under the Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program for Rice Farmers (SURE Aid Propgram), farmers tilling 1 hectare or less farm land may avail of a P15,000 zero-interest rate loan. “Rice farmers just have to pay P1,850 per year for eight years, that is just a small amount,” Dar said.
He added that a new credit window has been opened for farmers tilling more than 1 hectare. “This one-time financial assistance worth P5,000 is another cash outright-no condition SURE Aid loan to help our rice farmers.”
According to a policy brief prepared by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), rice farmers have lost at least P61.77 billion due to the decline in the farm-gate price of rice. However, a separate study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), using a different method for computations, estimated the losses at only a little over P8.22 billion from April to September.
The PhilRice paper noted that the drop in farm-gate prices was hastened by the implementation of RA 11203, which made it easier for traders to purchase imports.
Government data indicated that some 2.99 million metric tons of rice have arrived in the Philippines in October. The DA said it expects arrivals to go up as there are still a number of sanitary phytosanitary import clearances issued by the government that have not been used.
The United States Department of Agriculture had earlier projected that the Philippines’s rice imports this year will reach 3 MMT. The anticipated volume is bigger than the 2.5 MMT projected for China this year.
Planters have been urging the government to roll out safeguard measures that will cushion the impact of the surge in imports, which has pulled down the farm-gate price of the staple in recent months.