BANGUED, Abra — At least 5,000 farmers from 25 of the 27 towns in this conflict-stricken province have received fertilizer and seed subsidies from both the national and local governments to help them cope with the effects of Typhoon Pepeng last year.

The provincial agriculturist’s office said the fertilizer and seed subsidy is also intended to help the farmers combat the effects of the prolonged dry spell.

The local agriculture office said there are 3,442 hectares of rice farms in the 25 towns of the province that have been totally or partially damaged by Typhoon Pepeng when it wrecked havoc in Northern Luzon for over two weeks last year.

Under the guidelines in the grant of the fertilizer subsidy, the assistance is given to beneficiaries in the form of certificates of entitlement so that they could start planting their crops for the next harvest season.

The national and local governments also distributed seed subsidies to the affected farmers over the past several weeks.

Initially, a total of 2,017 hectares of rice farms with 2,558 farmers were able to benefit from the distribution of the certified seeds.