TACLOBAN CITY – A total of 1,403 rice farmers from 22 municipalities in Eastern Samar received financial aid from the Department of Agriculture to help them recover from the recent floods that hit the province.

Provincial Agriculturist Virgilio Capon said each farmer received a grant of P7,000 from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund–Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RCEF-RFFA), a program that provides direct cash assistance to smallholder rice farmers tilling two hectares or less.

Capon said the cash aid for the beneficiaries, who were registered in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), aims to help them cope with income losses from rice tariffication and rising production costs. The assistance is funded by rice import tariff collections.

Gov. Ralph Vincent Evardone said the distribution of cash assistance is timely, especially since rice farmers were among the most affected by the recent flooding caused by the shear line and Tropical Storm Ada.

Evardone said these weather disturbances inundated thousands of hectares of rice farms, especially in flood-prone towns such as Jipapad, Maslog, Dolores, Oras, San Policarpo, Arteche, and Can-Avid. He said these municipalities are also among the biggest rice-producing towns in Eastern Samar.

In Jipapad alone, the Eastern Samar Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Office reported that 113 hectares of newly planted rice were inundated by floods caused by the shear line during the first two weeks of January.

During the cash distribution, Evardone assured the farmers that the provincial government will continue to provide assistance through various agriculture-related programs to improve their economic condition.