Rice seeds subsidy under way in NegOr

The National Food Authority (NFA) has started distributing  seeds to farmers in Negros Oriental in line with the  third phase of the Rapid Seed Supply Financing Program (RASSFiP).

Phase 3  kicked off in the province on March 16  and will end on Sept. 15, said NFA provincial manager Dr. Carlos Cortes.

Under the program, NFA buys certified quality seeds from the Negros Oriental Rice and Corn Seeds Growers Association and distributes them to farmers in the local government units  through the Department of Agriculture (DA) at a subsidized cost.

“We bought 4,000 bags of seeds from the association and we aim to distribute them all to the farmers before the program ends in September,” said Rolando Lazalita of NFA Dumaguete.

The food agency bought the seeds at P1,200 per bag and will be sold to the program’s farmer at P600.

DA has identified the beneficiaries through the municipal and city agriculture offices in the  LGUs here.

“DA has a masterlist of the names of farmer-beneficiaries. Only they can avail of the certified seeds,” said Lazalita.

He estimates one bag of seeds to cover one hectare of land.

Cortes assured that the seeds are of top-notch quality.

“Before we buy these seeds, they go through a thorough laboratory testing. We only buy those that passed our testing,” he said.

The project is under the Rapid Food Production Enhancement Programme funded by the national government, International Fund for Agricultural Development and the European Commission (EU).