In the initial delivery of farm inputs in the various municipalities of Region 1, thousands of Ilocos farmers have received their free bags of rice seeds and fertilizers under the Department of Agriculture’s Rice Resiliency Project (RRP) – just in time for the wet season planting.

Following the marching orders of the Department of Agriculture-RFO 1 Regional Executive Director Lucrecio R. Alviar, Jr., the Rice Resiliency Project Taskforce comprising staff from the Rice Banner Program, in partnership with the Local Government Units, spearheaded the region-wide seed and fertilizer distribution.

As of June 5,2020 data, a total of 69, 102 farmers were awarded with hybrid and certified rice seeds which shall cover 53, 623 hectares (has.) of rice area in the region out of the targeted 125, 000 has.

Maximizing the budget allocated for this intervention, however, the targeted 125,000 has. was increased to 155,000 has.

Meanwhile, a total of 21, 629 farmers out of the targeted 99, 578 beneficiaries have also acquired their inbred rice seeds while a total of 13, 546 beneficiaries under fertilizer distribution have received their bags of urea good for 27, 091 has. of rice area out of the targeted 58, 182 hectares.

Still part of DA assistance to farmers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 68, 735 out of the 107, 122 beneficiaries under the Rice Farmer Financial Assistance (RFFA) program have received their aid of Php 5,000.00 cash each whereas 74,455 out of the 149, 449 beneficiaries under the Financial Subsidy for Rice Farmers (FSRF) had already claimed their subsidy of the same amount.

As of date, continuous distribution of seeds and fertilizers are on-going to complete the delivery of the interventions to all the targeted number of qualified farmer beneficiaries in the region.

RRP is a project under DA’s Plant Plant Plant Program or also known as the Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat (ALPAS) Kontra sa Covid-19 which is focused on increasing the rice adequacy level of the country from 86% to about 90-93% along with RFFA and FSRF, which are both financial assistance programs to support farmers in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.#