Land Bank now requiring coops to use certified seeds

Starting the first cropping season (wet season), of this year, all Landbank-assisted cooperatives and newly-accessing cooperatives availing of loans from the Landbank of the Philippines to finance their palay production projects are required to use certified seeds.

Landbank president and CEO Florido P. Casuela said this latest directive issued by the Bank is supportive of the government's thrust of attaining food security and enhancing the productivity of palay farmers. "Since food security remains a primary concern which we share with the government, we deem it proper to require our farmers to use certified seeds to improve production in the coming years," Casuela said. He pointed out the need to sustain the country's bountiful palay harvest of 11.8 million metric tons, the highest yield since 1994 as reported by the Department of Agriculture.

Specifically, it seeks to ensure sustained quality and integrity of palay seeds being utilized.

Under the guidelines cooperatives will be encouraged to source the certified palay seeds from growers and suppliers duly accredited by Landbank. The bank through its Countryside Enterprise Assistance Group, shall accredit an adequate number of qualified growers and suppliers to ensure the availability of certified palay seeds to all cooperative-borrower particulaly in traditional palay-producing areas.

The amount equivalent to the cost of certified palay seeds included in the production loan package will be deducted from the loan proceeds of cooperative-borrowers and shall be paid directly to duly accredited seed growers and suppliers.

The Certified Palay Seed Production Financing Program (CPSPFP) is one of the four components of Landbank's Program for Grains Productivity Enhancement and Other Support Services or Progress which it launched back in 1996. The CPSPFP was implemented to promote the use of quality certified seeds to enhance agricultural productivity. The use of certified seeds has been proven to increase yield by at least 10 percent.

The CPSPFP also envisioned to benefit the grains sector and the cooperatives and private seed producers by increasing their production and income.