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STATE-OWNED Land Bank of the
Philippines
is offering a new commodity loan to farmers to encourage
a third-season cropping of palay.
In a
statement, the bank said the loan could be used “against
warehouse receipts to liquidate [farmers’] existing
production loans.”
This
would allow farmers to re-apply for production loans and
immediately plant after the second cropping.
LandBank
has opened a P12-billion credit facility for farmers
this year to boost food production in the country. About
P5 billion of the facility has been allotted to rice
production, and P7 billion to other crops.
A
third-season cropping instead of the additional two—one
in the wet season and another in the dry season—has been
enforced by the Department of Agriculture (DA) under the
quick-turnaround planting program.
The
agriculture department earlier said it is targeting
100,000 hectares of new areas to be planted this year to
rice in nontyphoon areas in the Visayas and Mindanao.
LandBank
said the DA will identify the areas suited for third
cropping. The bank will provide the funds through its
conduits and bank-assisted cooperatives in the eligible
areas.
In an
interview by telephone, Frisco Malabanan, director of
the DA’s Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Program, said the
department has identified 37 “focus provinces” eligible
for third cropping of palay with Nueva Ecija and Isabela
in Luzon topping the list.
Landbank
president and chief executive officer Gilda Pico said
the bank’s credit conduits will now include farmer’s
organizations like irrigators’ associations, through
which loans may be extended to small rice farmers.
She said
these organizations need only enter into a collective
marketing agreement with a “reliable” palay buyer, after
which, the bank will help in negotiations with the buyer
to “come up with a mutually beneficial production,
technical and marketing agreement.”
She said
farmers’ organizations that are unable to meet the
criteria of the commodity loan may still be considered
under the palay production program using the hybrid
seeds facility of the DA. Financing will be done through
the Agricultural Credit Policy Council. (C. Valencia) |
