The Department of Agriculture (DA) has faced delays in paying suppliers and merchants in Ilocos region that participated in the government’s voucher system, which provided fertilizer subsidy to rice farmers.

A statement from the DA revealed that as much as P100-million worth of fertilizer provided by these suppliers and merchants to rice farmers has remained unpaid.

The DA, however, assured the fertilizer suppliers and merchants in Ilocos region that they will be paid in full within the week.

DA Assistant Secretary for Regional Operations Arnel de Mesa said a total of P22 million have been settled as of December 13, 2021, while the remaining claims are being processed by the DA Regional Field Office (RFO) 1.

“We apologize for the minor setback and inconvenience in our payment commitments to fertilizer merchants and distributors due to a glitch in our system, as a result of additional documentary requirement,” De Mesa said.

"It was necessary to ensure that there is no duplication in the payout of vouchers to legitimate dealers, who participated in the DA’s rice fertilizer subsidy program that provided a P2,000 fertilizer voucher for farmers planting inbred rice varieties, and P3,000 for those planting hybrid rice," he added.

For his part, DA-RFO 1 Director Nestor Domenden said that based on their initial investigation a fertilizer merchant submitted incomplete requirements that affected the total voucher claims worth P98 million.

“The payment for the whole lot was supposedly ready last December 3, 2021, but was returned for further vetting because one of the merchants failed to follow the claims process,” Domenden said.

He added that they will meet with merchants within the week to discuss the automated procedure in filing their payments to avoid future delays.

It was in August when the DA began issuing discount vouchers to eligible farmers amid the rising cost of fertilizers globally.

Under the project, farmer-beneficiaries will be allowed to claim inorganic fertilizers using discount vouchers. It targets to cover 1.15 million hectares of land in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4-B, and 5.

The discount voucher has value equivalent to P2,000 per hectare (/ha) for inbred and P3,000/ha for hybrid.

Vouchers may be claimed at any accredited fertilizer merchant, which can be a dealer, distributor, farmer cooperative and association (FCA) that has undergone accreditation process by DA-RFOs.

Rice farmers in target areas that are registered under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) will be eligible to avail of the discount. Farmers not yet registered may be served provided that they will enroll in the RSBSA through the printed forms issued by their respective local government units.Interested DA-RFO is implementing the project in partnership with government banks.

Prior to the launch of this voucher system, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) called for a Senate probe on the rising cost of fertilizer despite the supposed government interventions to bring down farm inputs in the country through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

KMP Leader Rafael Mariano said the DA should explain to Congress where the P10-billion RCEF is going and why it is not helping bring down the cost of farm inputs in the country.

As part of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), which liberalized rice importation in the Philippines, RCEF is also supposed to be injected with P10-billion sure funding annually from 2019 to 2024 from tariffs collected from imported rice.

Since May this year, fertilizer prices have constantly increased, further burdening rice farmers who are shouldering the entire cost of production.