DA forges deal for rice seed distribution under RCEF

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has forged a 1433million deal with select seed distributors for the purchase and distribution of high-quality inbred rice seeds to farmers under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

To be specific, Agriculture Secretary William Dar recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with top seed growers’ associations and cooperatives in the country to ensure the supply of high-quality inbred rice seeds to be utilized under RCEF.

RCEF is the tariff collected from imported rice and is supposed to help rice farmers become competitive and more productive. Under the Rice Tariffication law or RA 11203, RCEF should be first injected with 110 billion annually from 2019 to 2024 or a period of six years.

Under the MOA, the DA is set to initially purchase and distribute two million bags of high-quality inbred rice seeds to farmers, who are currently suffering from low palay prices due to the influx of imported rice.

The two million bags of seeds, each containing 20 kilos, will be planted to around one million hectares of rice land, and will benefit one million rice farmers in the country.

The MOA requires the release and payment of as much as 1432.78 million, accounting for almost a quarter of the 12-billion fund released for the RCEF's seed program.

The seed growers’ associations and cooperatives that entered into an agreement with the DA are the Pangasinan Organic Seed Growers and Nursery Multi-purpose Cooperative; Isabela Seed Growers Multi-purpose Cooperative; Nueva Ecija Seed Grower Multipurpose Cooperative; South Nueva Ecija Seed Growers Multi-purpose Cooperative; and West Visayas Federation of Multi-Purpose and Seed Producers Cooperative.

These cooperatives, accredited by the Bureau of Plant Industry's (BPI) National Seed Quality Control Services, produce up to 25 percent of the total seed requirement of the country.

“They have outstanding track records and have been in the business for a long time. None of them are newly registered, meaning we have known them for a long time and they continue to step up their game to produce highquality seeds that will help farmers to be productive,” Dar said.

“The two million bags of seeds that they will produce will be a tremendous boost to elevate the level of productivity in the countryside,” he added.

The seeds will be distributed among the 57 provinces, which are selected based on the size of their areas harvested with rice, yield level, cost of production, and share of irrigated area.

Also, the municipalities and cities must have an annual area of more than 500 hectares for the dry season 2019 to 2020.

Eligible beneficiaries must be listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA). Each can receive a maximum of four bags of inbred seeds depending on farm size for the October to December planting season.

“With the Seed Program of RCEF, we would like the Filipino rice farmers to be more productive, more competitive, and more profitable at the end of the day,” Dar said.

To ensure that only high-quality rice seeds will be distributed to farmers, Dar said that the regulation will be developmental oriented, with BPI constantly monitoring and overseeing that protocols and guidelines for seed production are followed.

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), on the other hand, will assist the rice farmers to achieve their optimum yield potential.

“The partnership will continue not only for the next six years. We will see to it that this will be a long-lasting partnership,” Dar further said.