No cash assistance for farmers; DA decides on one-time loan
The government will no longer give cash assistance to farmers, who have been suffering from the declining price of
palay.
Instead, farmers will be given the option to avail a one-time, zero-interest loan.
It’s been less than a week since the Department of Finance (DOF) and Department of Agriculture (DA) “mutually agreed” the implementation of an emergency assistance program to ease the impact of the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) to local rice production.
The agreement was supposed to involve the distribution of cash assistance that will be allocated and distributed to “RTL-affected” farmers. This will be done by expanding the ongoing Survival and Recovery (SURE) program of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), an attached agency of the DA.
Now, newly appointed Agriculture Secretary William Dar is saying the government actually doesn’t have enough money for direct cash assistance or an unconditional cash transfer for farmers.
The ACPC Governing Council, which Dar chairs, instead approved a total of 11.5 billion funding for the Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program for Rice Farmers (SURE Aid),
To be implemented by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), SURE Aid aims to provide loan assistance as immediate relief to rice farmers affected by the reduction or loss of their farm income. The program also intends to help rice farmers regain their capacity to continue their production.
“We don’t have money [and] we want to be practical,” Dar said.
Based on Dar’s computation, the government would be forced to release at least 16 billion if it was to push through with the cash assistance.
Under the SURE Aid, which shall commence on September 1, 2019, rice farmers who are farming one hectare land and below, may avail of a one-time, zero-interest loan amounting to 115,000 payable up to eight years.
The ACPC Governing Council is composed of the Secretary of the DA as the Chair, the Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as Vice-Chair, while the members are the Secretaries of the Department of Finance (DOF), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and the Director-General of the National Economic & Development Authority (NEDA).
“This loan assistance is a manifestation of the strong desire of the government to help Filipino rice farmers,” Dar said.
In addition, the National Food Authority (NFA) will buy the produce of rice farmers who were able to avail of the loan assistance under the said program.
The implementing guidelines of the program will be jointly crafted by the ACPC and the LBP.
Just last week, research and advocacy group Action for Economic Reforms (AER) has called on to fast-track the release of cash assistance to rice farmers who have been suffering from the declining price of palay.