DA to pilot new credit program

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) will roll out a new credit program next month, providing P60,000, at low interest rate, to rice farmers to finance their input needs and monthly expenses while waiting for harvest.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the DA would trial a credit program in partnership with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) aimed at improving the productivity of irrigated farm lands.

The DA targets to onboard at least 50,000 farmers tilling irrigated lands for the initial implementation of the program.

Under the program dubbed as Agri-Puhunan at Pantawid, each farmer belonging to irrigators’ associations would receive P60,000 with an interest rate of two percent.

Of the amount, P28,000 would be used by the farmers to purchase seeds and fertilizer to complement the inputs they receive from the DA.

The remaining amount of P22,000 can be withdrawn by the farmers each month to finance daily expenses while waiting for the harvest of their crops.

The farmers who would enroll in the program would also be insured to protect their crops from unforeseen circumstances like natural calamities, Tiu Laurel said.

“As long as they perform then they will be provided credit continuously,” he said.

The credit program would also entail a contract farming scheme wherein rice farmers would have a guaranteed price of P21 per kilogram to ensure their market and profit, the agriculture chief said.

Tiu Laurel said the DA and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. are looking for ways to expand and increase the coverage of its insurance products.

“Once that happens, we will be able to attract young farmers. We have to make farming bankable and one thing to make it bankable is through insurance,” he said.