THE government is launching a P400-million loan for rice farmers in four provinces under a program that seeks to boost efforts to attain its goal of “rice sufficiency” by 2013.
The Department of Agriculture and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) is signing on Jan. 20 a memorandum of agreement for the P400-million loan which will initially be rolled out in four major rice-producing provinces: Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo and North Cotabato.
“The DA and the LBP shared P200 million each to come up with the initial P400-million loan program that will be initially implemented this dry season,” said Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala in a statement. The loan facility will serve farmers who are members of irrigators’ associations of “good standing.”
Farmers who will plant hybrid rice could borrow a maximum of P42,000 per hectare per cropping while those who will plant inbred rice could borrow as much as P37,000 per hectare.
LBP President Gilda E. Pico said the initial P400 million will serve 2,000 farmers per province, or a total of 8,000 farmers.
“To qualify, members of irrigators’ associations should at least own one hectare or up to five hectares of irrigated land, which will be used as a ‘table collateral’ for their loan,” said Pico.
Other loan requirements, LBP noted, include a farm plan and budget, purchase order from National Food Authority or National Agribusiness Corp., and a promissory note for the amount borrowed. Applicants should have no existing palay production loan.
Borrowers will be charged a 15-percent interest per annum, inclusive of crop insurance, payable within six months. Declining interest will be applied to borrowers who establish good credit standing.
For the first two cropping cycles, the interest rate will be pegged at 15 percent and reduced by 1 percent every succeeding cycle, starting from the third cycle up to the sixth cropping cycle.
Earlier, the national rice program under the DA said the government is keen on expanding hectarage planted to hybrid rice initially by 50,000 hectares this year to prop up unmilled rice production.
Hybrid rice is a high-yielding variant with the potential to produce around 7 to 8 metric tons (MT) per hectare, as against 4 MT per hectare output of inbred rice.
