ASSISTANCE. Farmers in the municipality of Patnongon in Antique province receive PHP5,000 in financial assistance each under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund on Jan. 12, 2023. Sonie Guanco, Officer-in-charge of the Department of Agriculture Coordinating Office in Antique, said the municipality of Sibalom has the most number of farmers who received financial assistance. (PNA photo courtesy of Sonie Guanco)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Department of Agriculture (DA) has released a total of PHP45.96 million in financial assistance to 9,192 farmers from six municipalities of Antique province.
DA Antique Provincial Coordinating Office officer-in-charge Sonie Guanco, in an interview Thursday, said the financial aid provided under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) benefited 1,580 farmers from the municipality of Tobias Fornier; 423 from Anini-y; 1,958, San Remigio; 2,546, Sibalom; 848, Belison; and 1,837 from Patnongon.
"Each farmer who owns two hectares and below of farmland is being given PHP5,000 financial assistance so that they would have money to buy their needed farm inputs," said Guanco, adding that the distribution of funds began last Jan. 9.
He said farmer-beneficiaries may use the amount to buy fertilizers, seeds and other needs.
The Municipality of Sibalom, which is the rice granary of the province, has the most number of farmers who received assistance on Wednesday amounting to PHP12.7 million.
The funds were released through the contracted money remittance center of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), one of the bank partners of the DA for the program.
Next week, beneficiaries from Bugasong and Valderrama will get their share.
He said that the release of financial assistance will be temporarily halted on Jan. 13- 16, because the personnel of the remittance center will be in neighboring Aklan province for the release of similar assistance.
DA targets to provide assistance to 18,342 farmers throughout the province. (PNA)
