Some 1,021 farmers from Apayao province received on Wednesday their Intervention Monitoring Card (IMC), which will be where future cash assistance will be sent, while farmers in Kalinga province will receive theirs on Friday.

Department of Agriculture-CAR assistant director for operations Danilo Daguio, in a phone interview on Thursday, said the region was selected as among the areas nationwide to pilot test the digital distribution of assistance, which also taps third party as source of the agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizers.

Last December, DA pilot-tested in Kalinga and Abra province the tapping of third party distributors of the agricultural inputs using stubs, which the farmers used to claim the assistance.

With the use of the IMC, the 1,021 farmer-beneficiaries from Apayao, who were listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), need to present to the accredited merchant the card whenever they receive any agri-related assistance.

“Through digitalization, the complaint of inappropriate items or brands will be avoided as farmers are given the freedom to choose from those sold by the accredited merchant,” he said.

The IMC digitalization program is an initiative of the DA central office that aims to make it easier for farmers to receive government assistance.

It is part of the nine-point agenda of the department on digital agriculture, which is science and information-driven to digitalize the process of aid distribution.

Daguio said the system also benefits the DA since “it saves the Department from doing the procurement process, cuts the cost of transporting the goods from the regional office to the destination province and also removes the expense on food and event organizing during the distribution.”

“Both ways, to the government and the farmer-beneficiaries, the IMC is advantageous,” he said.

Alfonso Artikulo, a farmer from Baluyan in the municipality of Flora, Apayao said in Ilocano: “I am thankful for the good programs of the DA. I have been receiving assistance since 2018 and I, with the other farmers, are thankful.” (PNA)