Farmers and livestock raisers have received more than P66.93 million worth of financial assistance to assist them to recover from various challenges that hit them this year, including typhoons and the pandemic.
In a statement, the DA said among the recipients were around 2,259 rice farmers in Piddig under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund-Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RCEF-RFFA) program.
The Tobacco Contract Growing System received P712,250 in cash assistance from the DA-National Tobacco Administration, and the Curing Barn Assistance Project received more than P4.5 million.
The Dairy Animal Loan Assistance program, on the other hand, was awarded a total of P10.5 million and DA Secretary William Dar promised another P20 million for the dairy goat and dairy cow initiatives of Piddig town.
"When you have a highly performing province like Ilocos Norte and a highly performing municipality like Piddig and because it is very akin to what we would like to have in terms of farm consolidation, then bubuhos at bubuhos ang mga resources para sa probinsya at sa munisipyo na yan (then resources will be poured to its province and municipality)," Dar said.