POLANGUI, Albay Mayor Raymond Adrian Salceda has assured Albay farmers the Department of Agriculture (DA) has committed financial support and assistance under the government’s Rice Farmer Financial Assistance (RFFA) program of the Rice Tariffication Law, among others, for them to recover from the devastation of their farm crops by the raging El Niño dry spell.
Salceda, who heads the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Albay Chapter, said he had recently coordinated with Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Franklin Tiu-Laurel and was assured of RFFA assistance.
The El Niño phenomenon has already ravaged and damaged more than 425 hectares of rice lands in Albay, particularly in the towns of Polangui, Libon, Oas, and Pioduran, all in the third district of the province, the mayor reported.
Aside from the RFFA financial support, Salceda said he was also promised that the National Irrigation Administration would install surface pumps near water sources to augment the supply in drought stricken rice farms, referred to as Pump Irrigation from Open Sources or PISOS.
He said coordination are currently being undertaken by his office with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation to fast track assistance for the affected farmers. Alarmed by the threat, the LMP-Albay president has urged other municipal and city mayors in the province to support one another while waiting for government assistance.
Mayor Salceda said they will likewise see to it that Albay farmers will have their share of the certified and hybrid palay seeds and fertilizers which will be distributed by the DA in Bicol to help mitigate the effects of the calamity.
DA officials in Bicol have announced they will also distribute open pollinated corn flint, glutinous and hybrid corn and GM seeds and fertilizers to corn farmers, lowland vegetable seeds including legumes such as mungbean and flower inducers.
