SRA, Landbank streamline credit program rules

MANILA, Philippines — The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said sugarcane farmers would now be able to secure loans faster as the rules on the government’s socialized credit program have been streamlined.

The SRA said the implementing rules and regulations of the socialized credit program (SCP) under the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA) have been revised to provide farmers faster loan approvals.

The revision of the credit rules was undertaken by the SRA and the Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank), which implements the credit program pursuant to the SIDA.

“The sugarcane industry is one of the fortunate sectors in Philippine agriculture, largely due to the institutionalized socialized credit program crafted under the SIDA law,” Agriculture Undersecretary Roger Navarro said.

Landbank president and CEO Lynette Ortiz said the revised implementing guidelines would “strengthen” the sustainability and resilience of the sugarcane industry as more planters are expected to tap the credit program.

“The revised IRR opens the credit window to individual sugar farmers, block farms, credit conduits, common service centers and women organizations engaged with the sugarcane farming,” said Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture and food.

The SRA said the revisions in the IRR involve the inclusion of credit conduits within its program coverage, the reorganization of the program fund into trusts and the expansion of general obligations, policies and guidelines.

Under the revised IRR, planters’ associations may now serve as credit conduits who are allowed to impose an interest rate not exceeding six percent to cover their operational expenses, according to the SRA.

Furthermore, the waiving of credit information/background investigation (CI/BI) was changed in the new IRR making the standard of investigation from loan amounts to land area.

“Now, individual sugarcane farmers and block farm members with a maximum of five hectares would be waived from CI/BI, further streamlining the process of SCP,” the SRA said.

Other financial revisions of basic lending policies, such as the frequency of reporting and lower interest rates for common service centers, were approved to improve the process for beneficiaries, the SRA said.

Sugarcane planters belonging to a block farm may now also tap the credit program to cover parts of its production costs that were not initially covered by the SRA’s block farming program.

The SRA said that the newly revised SCP would be presented in a convention this year to orient mill districts and other stakeholders of the new policies. The SRA added that it would conduct a roadshow within sugar regions to improve transparency and services.