Palay farmers get fertilizer discount coupons

The Department of Agriculture (DA) reported yesterday that it has distributed 2.66 million fertilizer discount coupons to palay farmers this wet or main cropping season under its joint fertilizer program with local government units (LGUs).

The distribution of 2.66 million coupons to farmers tilling some 1.33 million hectares represents 51 percent of target coverage of 2,587,678 hectares.

Last summer, the DA and local executives agreed to embark on the fertilizer subsidy program this wet cropping season to help small farmers reeling from the spiralling cost of farm inputs costs and enable them to rapidly raise their yields by using the right amount of fertilizers for their palay crops.

Prices of petrochemical fertilizers have more than doubled this year to a range of P1,500 to P1,900 per bag.

The DA has allocated P1.29 billion for the joint DA-LGUs fertilizer subsidy program.

Under the fertilizer subsidy program, the DA hands out the discount coupons worth P250 each.

Two coupons per farmers per hectare is given, while the LGUs allot up to four coupons per hectare to the same beneficiaries in their localities.

This, in effect, means that every farmer-beneficiary can have as many as six discount coupons per hectare, or a discount of P1,500 combined for the purchase of fertilizers.

Farmers, however, can only use one discount coupon per bag. That way, it encourages them to use the ideal input requirement of six bags per hectare.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap had directed DA field officials to work out with governors and mayors in palay-growing provinces the fertilizer subsidies and other intervention measures that LGUs can help bankroll this wet cropping season with their share of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) differentials totalling P12.5 billion.

Yap had instructed the DA’s regional executive directors (REDs) to touch base with governors and mayors to discuss intervention measures that the DA and LGUs could pursue jointly this wet cropping season following President Arroyo’s monetization of the said IRA differentials, on condition that local executives use a portion of such funds for food productivity or security programs in their respective localities. — Marianne Go