Reporter

THE Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) has extended over P125 million in loans to 12,000 households in agrarian-reform communities (ARCs) nationwide through the Agri-Finance Solutions (Agrisol), a program jointly implemented by the bank and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) , with funding support from the World Bank.

Landbank president and chief executive Gilda Pico said the loans were extended to ARCs through various program conduits such as the National Confederation of Cooperatives, countryside financial institutions and anchor firms.

The amount represents 40 percent of the P317 million which LBP has committed for the program, while the number of borrowers represents 42 percent of the 28,800 target borrowers of the program.

For its part, the World Bank has extended P25.7 million as grant to the program for capacity-building of cooperatives in the identified 2nd Agrarian Reform Communities Development Program (ARCDP2) areas.

Agrisol aims to strengthen the institutional viability of ARCs under the ARCPD2 of the DAR through enterprise-based and market-led financing intervention. Under the Agrisol, generation of savings and capital buildup of ARC cooperatives are also being looked at for sustainability and to enable them to qualify and have better access to the lending facilities of formal financial institutions.

“In this enterprise-based and market-led financing program, we see to it that the borrowers must have an identified market for their produce or have a marketing tie-up with a reliable market outlet or buyer before specific trainings and financing will be provided,” said Pico.

Projects financed under the Agrisol include a variety of agri-related activities or commodities, such as the palay and corn of ARCs in Ilocos Norte, Isabela and Occidental Mindoro; the geotextile projects in Quezon and Misamis Occidental; the rubber and palm oil production in Compostela Valley; sugar-cane farming and organically grown bananas in Negros Oriental; and cavendish banana plantation in Davao Norte.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA), through its attached agency, the National Food Authority (NFA), is encouraging the public to eat brown rice.

INSTEAD of helping returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) establish sari-sari stores, the Philippine government should encourage workers to go into rice production to ease the impact of the impending grain shortage.

HIGH oil prices have forced Filipino rice farmers to contend with soaring fertilizer costs which have gone up by more than half in recent months, an official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

OIL companies increased by another 50 centavos the prices of diesel, gasoline and kerosene, citing as basis the continuous surge of oil prices in the world market.

AFTER a textile firm shuttered its plant in Namibia, retrenched Filipino workers held a strike to oppose the company’s demand which instructed them to leave the South African country without severance pay or shoulder all responsibility for their repatriation.

CEMENT prices will stay the same even during the summer months—seen as the peak of construction activity—and the period when commodity costs traditionally go up.

NAGA, Zamboanga Sibugay—Agrarian-reform beneficiaries who used to be rubber-plantation workers are now enjoying the fruits of their labor, especially after wiping out their cooperative’s P60-million deficit in 15 years.

THE Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) has extended over P125 million in loans to 12,000 households in agrarian-reform communities (ARCs) nationwide through the Agri-Finance Solutions (Agrisol), a program jointly implemented by the bank and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) , with funding support from the World Bank.