CALAPAN, PHILIPPINES – The Marcos administration is extending more financial assistance to rice farmers here with the understanding that they, too, will participate in government efforts to build up the country’s rice stocks.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez emphasized this symbiotic relationship between the government and the agricultural sector on Saturday during the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair kickoff at Oriental Mindoro National High School in Barangay San Vicente.
The administration’s Farmers Assistance for Recovery and Modernization (FARM) program provided PHP 2,000 in monetary assistance to about 2,000 farmers who attended the two-day event.
In return, they must set aside at least 100 kilos of rice harvest to sell to the National Food Authority (NFA).
Romualdez said building up the NFA rice reserves and maintaining an extensive buffer stock will allow the country to avoid shortages during calamities, droughts, and other emergencies.
He reassured the province’s agricultural sector that its interests continue to be a top priority of the Marcos administration.
“I have come here along with several other congressmen to bring to you the FARM program, which serves to implement the President’s (Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.) vision of uplifting the plight of farmers. Mindoro is a rice granary. We recognize your contributions to supplying rice not only to the province or the region, but the entire nation,” Romualdez told the farmers in Filipino.
Oriental Mindoro is currently beset with a prolonged dry spell brought about by El Niño that has placed two municipalities, Bulalacao and Mansalay, under states of calamity.
Earlier this week, the Department of Agriculture distributed cash assistance of PHP5,000 to each farmer in the two towns under its Rice Farmers Financial Assistance Program.
Keep Reading: El Niño causes P941 million in agricultural damages, NDRRMC reports
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