The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will be giving out P5,000 in cash allocations as subsidies to eligible rice farmers later this year.
Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman announced that they have approved the release of the Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA) amounting to P8,053,474,140 to the Department of Agriculture (DA) for the provision and distribution of P5,000 in subsidy to 1,563,781 eligible rice farmers on the third and fourth quarter of 2022.
The DBM said the release of the NCA is in line with the implementation of the Rice Farmers’ Financial Assistance (RFFA) program in order to provide support to rice farmers affected by the Rice Tariffication Law.
“Our farmers deserve our help and care. The immediate release of cash assistance could provide relief to our rice farmers given the recent natural calamities they experienced,” Pangandaman said.
“This unconditional cash assistance could also provide aid to the rice farmers in securing farm inputs such as fertilizer and oil farm machinery,” the secretary added.
The NCA will also cover the service fee, including the cost of card generation, for the Rice Competitive Enhancement Fund-RFFA under the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
Earlier this year, the DBM released a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) amounting to P8,948,302,090 to the DA under Unprogrammed Appropriations, General Appropriations Act Fiscal Year 2022, and Republic Act 11639.
On May 6, 2022, an initial NCA amounting to P894,827,950 was released by the DBM to DA based on the computed budgetary requirements of 173,753 qualified rice farmer-beneficiaries. -30-