House panel seeks more El Niño aid for farmers

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) should increase its capacity to provide financial assistance to farmers affected by El Niño, House of Representatives agriculture and food chairman and Quezon Rep. Wilfrido Mark M. Enverga said.

According to Mr. Enverga, the P500 million allocated for DA’s Survival and Recovery (SURE) Aid program is inadequate to cover all El Niño affected farmers.

The SURE Aid financial support program offers up to P25,000 worth of interest-free loans payable in three years for farmers affected by the dry spells and droughts brought by El Niño.

“I am glad that they have a SURE Aid program of P25,000 per farmer for El Niño-affected individuals,” Mr. Enverga told BusinessWorld in a Viber message. “My contention was that the total amount available was only P500 million.”

“I had appealed to DA to raise the total available amount to ensure that the program reaches as many affected individuals as possible,” he added.

Almost 8,000 farmers have been affected by El Niño, with 6,523 hectares of farmland damaged by dry spells and droughts, Lorna Belinda L. Calda, the DA’s Field Operations Service officer-in-charge said in a briefing for the committee last week.

Federation of Free Farmers National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor said that SURE Aid at a budget of P500 million “will benefit only 20,000 out of the more than 2 million rice farmers.”

“The production cost of a farmer is around P50,000 per hectare, so if a farmer suffers from a total loss, he will have to find a way to borrow another P25,000 in order to replant,” he added.

While the financial support provided by SURE Aid “is well-appreciated,” Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura Executive Director Jayson H. Cainglet said the distribution process lacks speed and transparency.

“The bigger concern is the timeliness of the release and a transparent mechanism that will ensure our farmers can easily access this aid and insurance support,” Mr. Cainglet said.

He added that the slow release of funds to El Niño-affected farmers means that they cannot immediately replant.

“We hope that the SURE Aid support be disbursed in a timely manner so that affected farmers can replant as soon as possible,” he said.

PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration), the government weather service, expects El Niño to peak this month.

“The peak of (El Niño) impact is March, April, May, and June,” Ana Liza S. Solis, PAGASA Climatology and Agrometeorology Division officer-in-charge said during last week’s committee briefing. —