The Federation of Free Farmers is urging Congress to make full use of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) in strengthening the entire rice seed system instead of merely distributing planting materials to farmers for free.
Under the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), P3 billion of the P10 billion allocated annually for the RCEF have been spent on propagating and distributing inbred rice seeds to a select set of rice farmers by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).
Since the RTL became law in 2019, the PhilRice has given 3.3 million in 20-kilo bags of certified seeds to some 1.5 million farmers each year.
The FFF said changes must be implemented as supply of certified seeds to farmers results from a long process.
“If we focus only on the distribution of free seeds, the whole program will collapse once funding from RCEF is phased out. All our efforts to promote and sustain the use of quality seeds will go to waste,” said Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager.
According to him, the rice seed subsidy program is among the best performing programs under the RCEF although there remains continued reports of delayed delivery, poor seed quality and mismatches between available stock and varieties preferred by farmers.
“Aside from quality seeds, farmers also need support for irrigation, fertilizer, credit, farm machinery, crop insurance, marketing assistance and other key interventions which may not all be covered by RCEF. Hence, RCEF should not be seen as a stand-alone program but rather as part of a comprehensive and integrated support system for rice farmers,” Montemayor said.
The FFF said the proposed changes to the RTL needs prompt consideration by the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization jointly chaired by Senator Cynthia Villar and Congressman Mark Enverga.
The committee is studying proposals to amend the law and expand the scope and funding of the RCEF.
