KOICA provides emergency rice support to Panay farmers

The Emergency Rice Support Project (ERSP) of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is enabling both the poor and vulnerable households in Metro Manila, and the local rice farmers in Panay Island survive the socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

KOICA allocated P20-million for the procurement of 4,000 bags of locally-produced rice for donations to more than 33,000 households in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The initial 2,000 bags of rice donations procured through the Local Government Unit (LGU) of San Miguel in Iloilo was turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development National Resource Operation Center in Pasay City on July 17.

San Miguel, which was tapped to lead the procurement of rice stocks here, is the KOICA’s recipient of the Regional Local Food Terminal (LFT) under the Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project (PIU-SRDP).

Jose Pepe Caoyonan, chairman of San Miguel Farmers Agriculture Cooperative, said they are thankful to the KOICA’s ERSP for it significantly boosted their LFT marketing operations and had likewise helped Panay rice farmers to sell their palay at a higher price to Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka ng Patnongon in Antique, Jamindan Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and SIDC in Tapaz, Capiz, and the Iloilo Rice Processing Complex in Pototan, Iloilo.

“We had a meeting with these farmers cooperatives who are also Bayanihan Tipon Center project partners and we decided that the needed supplies of rice will be equally sourced out from each BTC and also from the RPC in Pototan,” Caoyanan said.

Project partners bought the rice produce of the farmers at a price 25 percent higher compared to the usual traders’ price. LFT San Miguel, on the other hand, procures rice from the BTCs at P1,800 per bag. KOICA’s fund also covers the labor costs in repacking, packaging materials, and logistics.

Not only the farmers had benefited from the project, indigents and 4Ps beneficiaries had also earned P300 per day by repacking the rice stocks into six-kilogram pack which will be ready for distribution to Metro Manila households.

On Oct. 19, LFT San Miguel had already shipped the initial 800 bags of rice to Metro Manila for the second cycle of the ERSP implementation.

Meanwhile, BTC Patnongon and BTC Jamindan will deliver the remaining 1,200 bags of rice to the LFT within this week, according to Caoyanan.

“Nagapasalamat guid ako sa KOICA kay ara guid ang suporta nila sa mga mangunguma, kag nagapasalamat man ako sa amon mga mangunguma kay bisan pa may pandemic kag kalabanan sa ila mga senior citizens na, sige gihapon ang ila pagbinuligay para magsanyog pa ang amon kooperatiba,” he added.

The profits yielded from the ERSP transaction are being utilized by LFT San Miguel for the bulk buying of highland and lowland vegetables from BTCs in Alimodian, Tubungan and Lambunao.

“Thank you KOICA Philippines for helping our Panay rice farmers,” said Department of Agriculture Western Visayas Regional Executive Director Remelyn Recoter who also mentioned that ERSP, one of the KOICA’s COVID-19 response efforts, is among the several rural development projects they had implemented in the region.

KOICA is also eyeing to implement the Smart Agriculture System Project in the region by 2022, another big-ticket project succeeding the multi-million construction of Iloilo RPC in Pototan and the five-year implementation of PIU-SRDP. (JEE Ogatis/SMH Toreno/DA-RAFIS-6)