March 29, 2024

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – This province and Ifugao received assistance package from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) provided under the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
The assistance, which was handed during the highlights of the first year anniversary celebration of the RTL, consisted of certified high yield rice seeds and farm machineries.
Under the Seed Component, Kalinga got 21,960 bags of certified inbred rice seeds for target rice production area of 10,980 while Ifugao received 7,858 bags for 3,929 hectares.
Department of Agriculture-Cordillera Technical Director for Operations Danilo Daguio said the certified seeds can produce 10 percent mark-up yield than ordinary seeds. This is intended for the next wet season in July to November.
For farm mechanization assistance, Kalinga is allocated P15M to be distributed to three towns while Ifugao has P20M for four towns.
Ryan Duyag from Phil-Mech said the release of the aid is based on need as proposed by farmers’ cooperatives and associations.
Under the program, farmers are provided machineries for land preparation, harvesting and milling, Duyag said.
DA has identified 57 major rice producing provinces in the country as beneficiaries of the RCEF including Kalinga and Ifugao.
The government allots P10B for RCEF every year from rice import tariffs collected from private importers  allowed  under the  RTL to enhance competitiveness of the country’s rice farmers who are affected by the drop in palay prices due to open rice importation.
Other components of the RCEF include credit and trainings to update the knowledge rice farmers. – Larry Lopez