Agriculture Secretary William Dar. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
ALANGALANG, Leyte — Agriculture Secretary William Dar on Tuesday announced that rice farmers will each receive P5,000 taken from excess collections under the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
Dar made this announcement as he addressed the 13th National Rice Technology Forum held in this town on Tuesday, October 12.
According to Dar, at least 1.56 million rice farmers tilling less than two hectares will receive the cash assistance.
In Eastern Visayas, about 37,000 rice farmers could receive the P5,000 excess rice tariff assistance from the national government.
Dar said he intended to lead the distribution of the cash assistance for identified farmers in Eastern Visayas on November 5 in Tacloban City.
“I have good news for our rice farmers. We will be distributing P5,000 each for our farmers who are tilling at least two hectares of land,” he said.
Dar explained that since the implementation of the RTL in 2019 and up to last year, some P7.7 billion “rice excess tariffs” have been accumulated.
In return, this excess tariff will be given to the rice farmers as financial assistance.
In 2020, the Senate, through the endorsement of Senator Cynthia Villar, who chairs the agriculture committee, allowed the government to use any excess of the rice tariff collections to provide financial assistance to the small rice farmers.
This early, Dar said only those who are listed under the farmer’s registry of the DA could receive the P5,000 cash assistance.
“But we want to distribute this cash assistance to our rice farmers by December so they will have a merry Christmas,” he said.