LESS than 500 farmers from Bohol and Negros Oriental will receive the P5,000 cash assistance from the Department of Agriculture (DA) as palay prices continue to decline.

Salvador Diputado, DA 7 regional director, said only the two provinces in Central Visayas were qualified because of its evident supply of rice.

Diputado said the beneficiaries are predetermined based on the qualifications set by the national headquarters.

“We are still waiting for the guidelines and the budget. Once we receive that, we will immediately disburse the cash to the farmers,” he said.

DA Secretary William Dar said the distribution of the one-time cash assistance will be sourced from tax collection from imported rice.

The Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) lifted the restrictions on rice imports, opening a free trade for the country’s staple on a global scale. This caused a decline in local palay prices as Filipino farmers compete head on with cheaper imported rice in the market.

Under the RTL, out of the 35 percent tariff slapped on rice imports, an annual P10 billion Rice Competitiveness Fund will be created that will fund innovations to modernize the country’s farming industry.

A report said that the Bureau of Customs has already exceeded its P10-billion rice import tariff collection target for this year.

Customs Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip Maronilla said the collection from rice importation has reached P10.7 billion as of end-September.

Dar also said the country has already imported 2.4 million tons of rice since March.

Among the four provinces in the region, Cebu records the highest rice requirement of 337, 424 metric tons (MT) in 2018.

But since the province is not a major rice producer with rice production of only 7,971 MT, Cebu sources most of its rice supply from Bohol and Negros Oriental./ JOB with KOC