The Department of Agriculture of Central Luzon has officially opened the Fertilizer Voucher Scheme program under Rice Resilience Project (RRP) II led by Regional Rice Program Focal Person Lowell Rebillaco at TNC Agriculture and Poultry Supply, Hermosa, Bataan on 23th. of February.
The RRP II project is part of the Plant, Plant, Plant Program that aims to increase and boost local production of rice and rice to fight the security threat of food supply in the country. DA will provide free fertilizer and different varieties of seed to farmers from rice harvesting regions.
This is the Fertilizer Voucher Scheme program started in Hermosa, Bataan where twelve farmers attended and were awarded a fertilizer voucher. With this voucher, they got their respective free fertilizer from DA RFO 3.
Lowell Rebillaco shared the qualifications to receive a fertilizer voucher. According to him, those who will receive the fertilizer voucher are farmers registered in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), who have planted rice this dry season since September 16, 2020 to 15 of March 2021 and farmers who have not received an in-kind fertilizer.
′′ There are also qualifications for those who want to be a supplier and distributor of fertilizer. Those who want to supply fertilizer will be checked by the Agriculture Provincial Coordinator (APCO) if they are qualified or can no longer supply fertilizer to the farmers who are serving as beneficiaries of this program,” he said.
One of the beneficiaries is farmer Ariel Cordova from Hermosa, Bataan with a large three-acre rice farm. She got six Urea (46-0-0) and three bags of Complete fertilizer (14-14-14) from a total Php 9,000 fertilizer voucher from the Department.
′′ I am grateful to the DA program for the help they gave to our farmers here in Hermosa. This is a big help because we know that last year the price of rice dropped. If this is not there, we might be more buried in debt. So thanks to Sir William Dar, I hope you won’t get tired of helping us,” he added.
Fertilizer voucher will last until 30th June of the current year.