The Rice Industry Development Office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said the voucher system providing seeds and fertilizers to clustered rice farmers in five pilot regions should soon roll out.
Glenn Estrada, head of the digitalization program under the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program, said the voucher system will use interventions monitoring cards (IMC) that double as identification and cash cards of farmers.
IMC cardholders in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Mimaropa and Bicol may use them to buy seeds and fertilizers from suppliers of their choice and pay for orders either in bulk or individually via USSC, Maya or GCash.
With the vouchers, the farmers themselves choose their seeds and fertilizer suppliers, making the system superior to an earlier practice where the seeds and fertilizers were either not used due to delays or the available stock were nor the preferred kind.
The DA stressed that clustered farms must be registered with the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture to access the voucher system and its interventions, including the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance program of P5,000 each funded by the Rice Tariffication Law.
The DA had said farmers may report a record palay harvest this year despite the weather disruptions presented by the El Niño phenomenon.
Leo Sebastian, undersecretary for rice industry development, said the agency is hopeful that palay production this year total 20 million metric tons more or less.
In 2021, rice production posted a record 19.96 million MT but eased to only 19.76 million MT last year.
The DA said their optimism is driven by the 300,000 MT increase in palay harvest in the first six months this year.
Sebastian said the El Nino has not yet been reflected in the harvests but the DA is already preparing for when the temperature rises as the dry season begins next year.
