Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, lauded DA-PhilRice for hitting 100% of its seed delivery target this dry season and reaching 94.96% distribution to farmers in partnership with DA-Regional Field offices and Local Government Units (LGUs) despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
During the annual review of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF)- Seed and Extension Programs, Villar underscored the importance of distributing inbred rice seeds to farmers in over 50 provinces.
“It’s a delight reading farmers’ testimonies on the changes that RCEF brought to them—productive harvest and increased income. We should [continue] to move in haste and with a sense of urgency because these provisions are very important to our farmers,” Villar said.
“It’s a delight reading farmers’ testimonies on the changes that RCEF brought to them—productive harvest and increased income. We should [continue] to move in haste and with a sense of urgency because these provisions are very important to our farmers,” Villar said.
The RCEF-Seed Program delivered 1.7M bags of certified inbred seeds to 55 provinces since September 2020. About 1.5M were distributed through LGUs benefitting more than 600,000 farmers as of Feb. 28, 2021.
DA Secretary William D. Dar urged the Institute during the same review to strengthen its partnership with the provincial governments and LGUs in implementing the RCEF program.
Dar also emphasized the One-DA holistic approach of the department as key to modernize and industrialize Philippine agriculture.
“All strategies are being mobilized to make it possible that we take with us our rice farmers in our journey for development. We really want our farmers to improve their yield while lowering their production cost,” he said.
“All strategies are being mobilized to make it possible that we take with us our rice farmers in our journey for development. We really want our farmers to improve their yield while lowering their production cost,” he said.
Meanwhile, the current RCEF-Extension Program of PhilRice conducts blended learning approaches on Rice Specialist Training courses, Training of Trainers, Farmer Field Schools, Lakbay Palay, and PalayAralan in capacitating farmers and extension workers in rice production.
Supplementary materials for learning are also distributed such as magazines, videos, handouts, and brochures to almost 3M RCEF beneficiaries.
