The government has extended the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) up to 2031 under the amended Rice Tariffication Law (Republic Act No. 12078), ensuring that its benefits continue to reach farmers nationwide.
This decision follows six years since 2019 of RCEF providing rice farmers access to high-quality seeds, modern machinery, affordable credit, and appropriate training programs.
Based on the latest figures from the Rice Seed Monitoring System (RSMS), the RCEF Seed Program through PhilRice has distributed over 19.92 million bags of certified seeds to 2.02 million farmers, reaching 1,411 municipalities across 77 provinces and covering 1.2 million hectares in the wet season and 780,000ha in the dry season from 2020-2025.
Collaborating with the Agricultural Training Institute, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization, PhilRice has trained 300,000 farmers, extension workers, and specialists in modern farming techniques under the RCEF Extension Program. Over 3 million educational materials have also been distributed.
The budget of RCEF 2.0 has tripled to P30 billion, to reach more farmers and enable additional programs like soil health improvement, pest management, solar-powered irrigation, and to strengthen the Philippine rice industry’s competitiveness.
