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ILIGAN CITY — Some 131 corn farmers in Bukidnon’s Manolo Fortich town received fuel discount subsidies from the Department of Agriculture-Region 10 (DA-10) on Friday, June 3.

The said corn farmers were the first batch who received aid under the department’s subsidy program throughout region 10.

For Northern Mindanao, the target is pegged at about 9,500 corn farmers with a total allocation of P28 million.

The program is intended to cushion the impact of fuel price hikes on farmers and fishers, and ultimately ensure food security.

DA-10 Regional Executive Director Carlene C. Collado said that under the program, each qualified corn farmer is granted with P3,000 in fuel discount as part of DA’s instituted measures in the face of prohibitive fuel prices which affect agricultural operations. By giving them subsidies, the corn farmers would be able to maximize the utilization of farm machineries and facilities for the end-goal of keeping huge harvest.

Pursuant to the Special Provision of the General Appropriations Act for the current fiscal year, a total amount of P500 million is apportioned to provide fuel discount to corn farmers, including that of fisherfolk for the machineries used in corn production from land preparation to postharvest activities and motorized boats for fishing operations.

The subsidy shall only be used to buy gasoline or fuel diesel from accredited petroleum retail outlets, said DA-10 corn focal person Richard D. Lacanaria.

A corn farmer must be registered in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) and encoded in the Farmers and Fisherfolk Registry System (FFRS), and an individual or his/or farmer’s cooperative or association must also own functional machinery with proof of ownership and must be further listed in the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Management Information System (ABEMIS) to qualify for the fuel subsidy, Lacanaria added.

Marymee H. Castro of the Aggies Multi-Purpose Cooperative of barangay Maluko conveyed her appreciation for said assistance saying, ‘lubos ang aking pasasalamat sa DA na naisipan nila ang programang ito na makakatulong talaga sa aming mga magsasaka dahil sa taas ng bilihin ngayon, at halos ang mga gamit naming pansaka ay gumagamit ng gasolina na nakakadagdag sa production cost sa aming tinatanim na mais.’

She added that the fuel subsidy will be used for their cooperative’s corn sheller, corn mill and other postharvest facilities.

Recognizing that most of the municipality’s fuel discount program-beneficiaries are farmer cooperatives, association-members, DA-10 Regional technical director for operations Carlota S. Madriaga further urged the attending farmers to organize them into clusters in order to avail more of agricultural interventions from the government, especially those big-ticket projects such as the provision of farm tractors, combine harvesters, solar dryer facilities, warehouses, among others.

Under the Duterte administration and Secretary Dar’s helm, she said, that the agriculture department is advocating for farm consolidation and clustering, as it involves the integration of government interventions to organized farmer-groups, with the aim to empower stakeholders to reduce production costs and reap benefits in the agriculture value chain.

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