Agriculture Secretary William Dar. | INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
TACLOBAN CITY––The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Eastern Visayas last week started paying cash assistance to rice farmers in the region.
About 101 rice farmers joined the ceremonial release of cash assistance held Nov. 6 with Agriculture Secretary William Dar.
“Out of the estimated 600,000 rice farmers identified to receive the P5,000 cash assistance source from the excess rice tariff collection, over 55,000 are from Eastern Visayas,” Dar said.
Dar hoped that the cash assistance would help the farmers, who are having a hard time due to the pandemic.
Entitled to receive the assistance are farmers tilling two hectares of land and registered at the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture, which mostly come from local governments.
About P3 billion will be used for cash assistance to the country’s rice farmers who will get the money through a cash card either at the Land Bank of the Philippines or Development Bank of the Philippines branches.
Arthur Cerro, 72, of Barangay Opong, Tolosa town in Leyte province, said he was grateful for the cash assistance.
He, however, admitted that the amount is barely enough to produce seeds and fertilizers.
“Still, I am grateful to our government for providing us assistance, especially during this time of difficulties,” he said.