BONTOC, Mountain Province (PIA) — A total of 964 farmer beneficiaries received P5,000.00 each under the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) during the payout on July 29, 2024, in Poblacion, Bontoc.
The farmer beneficiaries are from the municipalities of Bontoc, Bauko,Besao, Sagada, Sabangan, Tadian, Barlig and Sadanga. The municipalities of Natonin and Paracelis have a different schedule for their pay-out, according to the Department of Agriculture in the province.
The 964 farmers are among the 1,351 beneficiaries for the last batch of the RFFA in Mountain Province. The program provides cash assistance to smallholder rice farmers registered in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA)who tilling riceland of two hectares and below. It is a compensation for the projected reduction or loss of farm income arising from the tarification of quantitative import restrictions on rice.
June Pinayakan, who represented Governor Bonifacio C. Lacwasan Jr., said that the cash assistance should be used to what it is intended for which is to supplement their farmland needs.
“Ti dawat me kendakayo, usaren yu nga usto. Usaren you si pag sayaatan, usaren yu si kailangan,” he said.
[Our appeal to you is to use the assistance properly. Use it for your needs, for your own good.]
Joy Dapyawen from the municipality of Bauko is thankful to the government for the financial assistance which she will use for their needs in planting.
“Inayun me daytoy para idjai mula mi nga nadadael. Usaren mi para ti pag mula mi.” (VJLT-PIA)
