Rice farmers in Davao Region have received a total of about 72,000 bags of seeds since November this year as part of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) mandated by Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law.
Based on the data from the Department of Agriculture in Davao Region (DA-Davao), 24,264 bags of seeds were given to the farmers of Davao del Norte, 18,579 bags for Davao de Oro, 16,008 bags for Davao del Sur, 11,859 bags for Davao Oriental, and 1,448 bags for Davao City.
DA-Davao regional agriculture information chief Noel Provido said the seeds were distributed through irrigators association, rice farmers association, and cooperatives such as the Davao Multi-Purpose Seed Producers Cooperative (Damsepco), Davao Oriental Seed Producers Cooperative (Dosepco), Seed to Rice Producers Cooperatives (S2R).
In a phone interview with DA regional seed coordinator Evelyn Basa, she said the bags of rice seeds, which were allocated for the first semester or dry cropping season of 2019-2020, amounted to about P55 million and the distribution of seeds is still ongoing.
She also added for the second semester or the wet cropping season in 2020, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philtrice), the implementing agency for the seed distribution under RCEF, allocated roughly P69 million or 91,290 bags of seeds weighing 20 kilos each.
According to the law, the national government assigns 30 percent or P3 billion out of the P10 billion RCEF for rice seed development, propagation, and promotion.
Fifty percent of the RCEF or P5 billion is intended for the provision of rice farm production and postharvest machinery, equipment, and facilities.
Provido said although the beneficiaries for the farm facilities have already been identified. The agency still has to undergo the bidding process.
“We need to follow the bidding process and it would take a while,” he said in a text message to SunStar Davao.
He also said no farmers have availed loans from the Landbank of the Philippines (LandBank).
Ten percent of the RCEF is allocated for the credit facility with minimum interest rates and with minimum collateral requirements to rice farmers and cooperatives to be managed equally by Landbank and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
“[The amount they can loan] depends on the amount of machinery or the project,” Provido said.
However, farmers have availed the allocations on the regular programs of the DA.
“[Through this], we want to bring down the production cost [of the rice farmers] to more than 50 percent,” he said.
He said some of the factors that spiked up the production cost are the expensive labor and the farm inputs.