THE Department of Agriculture (DA) in Western Visayas has crafted several strategies to ensure local food supply and combat hunger amid the prevailing global health crisis, its top official said.
DA-Western Visayas Regional Executive Director Remelyn Recoter, in a statement, said part of the quick response strategy is the distribution of social amelioration or financing aid to rice farmers in the region.
Recoter said the agency, so far, has distributed a total of P174.55 million to 34,910 rice farmers in Iloilo under the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance.
It also released P407.2 million to 74,460 rice growers in Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Negros Occidental through the Financial Subsidy for Rice Farmers (FSRF).
The P5,000 per farmer subsidy is a sort of social amelioration intended to allay the adverse effects of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis among small rice farmers.
Under the FSRF program, those who are qualified are those with farm areas of one hectare and below.
“We had also released P49.5 million zero-interest loan to 1,980 individual farmers under the Survival and Recovery (SURE) Aid Program," she said, adding this is on top of the P14.6 million given to three micro and small enterprises in the region through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council and its accredited conduit associations and cooperatives.
The DA official reported that the agency has assured the unhampered movement of food supply during the community quarantine period.
DA-Western Visayas has issued 10,093 food passes and 13,143 Inter-Agency Task Force IDs to farmers, agribusiness personnel, entrepreneurs, truckers and suppliers regionwide.
Recoter cited the "Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita" as one important response that the department has provided to the farmers as well as the consuming public.
For the past three months, the "Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita" already generated about P10.8 million in gross sales.
Meanwhile, the Rice Resiliency Project (RRP), which is under the Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat Kontra Covid-19 or the Plant, Plant, Plant Program, aims to boost the local production of rice through the distribution of farm inputs.
Recoter said of the P8.5 billion national fund for RRP, Western Visayas obtained P1.06 billion for the distribution of certified inbred and hybrid seeds as well as urea fertilizers to farmers listed under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA).
"We are hoping that we can increase the sufficiency level of the region from 117 percent in 2019," she added.
The DA is also pushing for urban agriculture with the establishment of community gardens in three pilot sites in Iloilo City in May.
A ceremonial planting of vegetables was held recently in the 1,325-square meter lot of the National Food Authority (NFA)-Western Visayas.
"We are hoping that this facility will be able to help the NFA employees and their clients," she said, adding that "we are looking forward to making the area a vegetable seed production area." (With reports from DA-Western Visayas)