Bong Go vows continued support for agriculture sector

MANILA, Philippines — A new measure that comprehensively addresses the financial challenges of the country’s agriculture and fisheries sectors with the goal of attaining food security has earned the strong backing of Sen. Bong Go.

Go reaffirmed his commitment to improve farmers’ and fisherfolk’s access to financing as the Senate passed on third and final reading last Wednesday Senate Bill 1924, the proposed Rural Agricultural and Fisheries Financing Enhancement Act which he co-authored.

SB 1924 provides for an agriculture, fisheries and rural development financing system to improve the productivity, income, competitiveness and welfare of the rural community beneficiaries, such as farmers and fisherfolk, as well as their cooperatives, organizations and associations, through government and private banking institutions.

The measure will repeal Republic Act 10000, the Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009, which was initially designed to extend credit access to the agricultural sector.

Go highlighted that the existing law needs to be improved since farmers and fisherfolk remain to be a low-income, impoverished, high-risk sector due to the lack of means and mechanisms to add value to their products.

Under the proposed measure, all banking institutions, whether government or private, except newly established banks, must set aside a credit quota, or a minimum mandatory agricultural and fisheries financing requirement of at least 25 percent of their total loanable fund.

The total loanable funds generated by a banking institution will be defined by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Banks may also comply with the mandatory credit requirement by lending to rural community beneficiaries to finance agricultural and fishery-related activities, among others.

The modes of compliance under the proposed measure will be subject to review by the Agricultural and Fisheries Finance and Capacity-Building Council.

An Agribusiness Management Capacity and Institution-Building Fund (Special Fund) shall also be established to finance agricultural and fishery-related activities, as well as other capacity- and institution-building programs.

Penalties due from banks on their noncompliance or undercompliance with the mandatory agri-agra credit requirement will form part of the Special Fund.

Through reforms to the existing structure of the financial system for agricultural, fisheries and rural development, Go said that rural communities will have greater access to credit which will help improve their welfare, competitiveness, income and productivity, particularly for farmers and fisherfolk.

“It is critical that we support our farmers and fishers. To ensure that those in rural areas have equitable prospects for development, we must continue to strengthen agricultural support systems and infrastructure,” Go said.

The senator stressed that the country’s agricultural sector needs support from the government now more than ever, particularly in light of the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent natural disasters that hit the country.

“Especially in today’s time when the crisis has affected our economy, we are ‘back to basics.’ We have seen how important agriculture is to our country and livelihood. We can quickly restore the vitality of our economy if we strengthen the agricultural sector in the provinces,” he said.