Farmers can now avail of subsidized fertilizers

As one of the solutions to the rice crisis, the Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the local government units have now started the implementation of the fertilizer subsidy program that would help rice growers cope with the rising farm inputs.

DA-7 information officer Grace Dagala said yesterday that the LGUs in Central Visayas are now distributing coupons to farmers that would entitle them P250 less on every bag of fertilizer that they buy from accredited dealers.

Dagala said the program is in answer to the complaint of farmers against high prices of farm inputs like pesticides and fertilizers, which discourage them from planting rice.

But she explained that only six coupons will be given for every hectare of rice land or a total of P1,500 subsidy for every hectare.

Under the guidelines of the FSP, the local governments will give a P1,000 subsidy for four bags of fertilizer, while the DA will match this with a P500 subsidy for two bags, bringing the entire government assistance to P1,500 per hectare.

A bag of inorganic fertilizer now costs around P2,000, Dagala said. 

The provinces shall be responsible for providing the DA with the list of participating farmers and the rice area to be covered under the FSP, and releasing the coded fertilizer discount coupons to the farmers.

“What the farmers have to do is go to their respective municipal agrarian officers to register their names and get their discount coupons, which they will present to accredited fertilizer dealers when they buy fertilizers,” Dagala said.

The LGUs will also furnish the farmer beneficiaries the list of Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority-accredited dealers and suppliers to avail of the cheaper price.

Dagala said that the money used to finance the program came from the would-be monetized Internal Revenue Allotment differentials of the LGUs totaling P12.5 billion.

She added that farmers from Cebu and Negros Oriental expressed concern because most of them do not plant rice but corn, which needs organic fertilizer. 

In this case, Dagala said it would now depend on the respective LGUs on how much subsidy they will give because a sack of inorganic fertilizer costs around P380. But she said some LGUs agreed that they will give one sack free for every sack of inorganic fertilizer that the corn farmers buy.

In May, President Gloria Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 723 monetizing P12.5 billion in unremitted IRA allotments representing the difference between what LGUs were supposed to receive and what they actually got in 2001 and 2004 when the national budgets were only reenacted during those fiscal years.

The DA said that the objective of the FSP is to increase production, in the target 2.58 million hectares of rice land, through timely and proper application of the required amount or quantity of fertilizers for the 2008 wet cropping season. - Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV