The Department of Agriculture on Tuesday said it is almost ready to roll out the voucher system in assisting with seeds and fertilizers to clustered farmers in five pilot regions.

The department is looking at a possible launch of this voucher system using the IMC (interventions monitoring cards) that would double up as identification and cash cards to individual farmers, according to Glenn Estrada, head of the Digitalization program under the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program.

The regions where the IMC cards would be distributed are those from Regions 1, 2, 3, 4-B, and 5, where DA's partner USSC, a homegrown Filipino-owned company and the number one agent of Western Union in the Philippines, Estrada noted.

As envisioned, clustered farmers can now transact and buy their seeds and fertilizers from any supplier of their choice and with the IMC cards can pay for their orders either in bulk (as a cooperative) or individually to either USSC, Maya, or GCash.

Through the voucher system, farmers are now empowered to choose their suppliers of seeds and fertilizers whereas before the region supplied them with these stocks that were usually delayed or did not conform to their preferences, thus ended up being unused.

The clustered farms must all be registered with the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture.

Through the voucher system, RSBSA farmers can access government interventions, including the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance of P5,000 each funded by the Rice Tariffication Law of October 2021.

DA's partners in the IMC cards are the Development Bank of the Philippines and the USSC.

Farmers can also pay using their e-wallets Maya and GCash.