A member of the provincial board in Antique is advocating for the allocation of PHP15 million as a subsidy to support local farmers. Board member Fernando Corvera Sr., who chairs the Committee on Agriculture, announced in an interview on Tuesday that he is in the process of crafting an ordinance to be introduced in the provincial board during their next session.
The proposed ordinance is titled “Authorizing a Grant of Financial Subsidy Amounting to PHP15 Million to Support the Palay Marketing Assistance Program through the National Food Authority (NFA) in the Province of Antique.”
Under this proposal, the subsidy aims to supplement the existing NFA buying price of PHP17 per kilo, allowing farmers to receive a higher take-home amount when selling their fresh palay produce. “Right now, the NFA buying price of fresh palay from the farmers is PHP17 per kilo, but with the provincial government financial subsidy, the NFA could procure the palay a little higher,” explained Arnold Balangao, chair of the Provincial Agricultural and Fishery Council (PAFC), which requested this intervention.
The subsidy is expected to be available to farmers registered with the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) of the Department of Agriculture.
This scheme is already being implemented in Iloilo province, particularly in the towns of Estancia and Passi City, where a PHP2 subsidy is provided for each kilo of palay. The strategy is anticipated to help farmers recover from their farming expenses while also increasing their income.
Currently, traders in Antique are offering a buying price of PHP12 per kilo for fresh harvests. Given that Antique is an agriculture-based province with approximately 75,000 farmers, this subsidy could significantly impact the local farming community.