Gov’t to loan out P1.3B under agrarian credit program

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MANILA — The Department of Agriculture (DA) announced yesterday its plans of lending out P1.336 billion this year, under the five-year credit and capacity development program for agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP), was specially created for the agrarian reform beneficiaries who are not eligible for financing under Land Bank of the Philippines’ regular lending programs.

Those agrarian reform beneficiaries who have no way of obtaining credit through formal means may still receive financial help through APCP.

The said program, which has received an initial funding of P1 billion for 2012 and another in 2013, is a joint micro finance program of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines.

This year, APCP’s management committee aims to implement operational strategies to meet the target loans.

The strategies include conduct of workshops with agrarian reform beneficiary groups on loan documentation, and assisting beneficiaries in identifying new agribusiness projects.

APCP also handles capacity building, assistance for agrarian reform beneficiaries and support for the communal production and enterprise projects.

Since its implementation in 2012, a total of P257.43 million in loans had been released as of February 28, 2014.