The Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) said its outstanding loans in support of the country’s small farmers and fishermen in the first quarter of 2017 reached P434.4 billion, 12 percent higher than the P387.4 billion recorded during the same time period last year.
LandBank noted growth in identified priority sectors where increments were reported across all the loans provided by the bank in support of the country’s agriculture sector.
“LandBank remains focused on efforts toward fulfilling its mandate to serve small farmers and fisher folk and other marginalized sectors, especially in the countryside. We are also taking an active role in the implementation of the national government’s development agenda, particularly programs that promote financial inclusion, job generation and countryside development at large,” LandBank President and CEO Alex V. Buenaventura said in a statement on Tuesday.
LandBank said among the identified priority sectors are small farmers and fisherfolks (SFFs), micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), agri-aqua projects of local government units (LGUs) and government-owned and -controlled corporations, and support for national government projects in communications, transportation, housing, education, health care, environment-related projects, tourism, utilities and livelihood loans.
LandBank said its outstanding loans to SFFs during the January-to-March period expanded by 7.45 percent to P34.6 billion, from P32.2 billion last year.
“For the first quarter of 2017, loans released reached P8.7 billion and benefited 102,322 SFFs nationwide and were channeled through 484 farmers and fisherfolk cooperatives, 57 countryside financial institutions and 65 irrigators’ associations,” LandBank said.
Meanwhile, loans in support of agri-businesses, aqua-businesses and agri-aqua-related projects of LGUs grew by 11 percent to P111.5 billion, from P100.9 billion in the same period last year, according to LandBank.
LandBank said bulk of the recorded outstanding agricultural loans as of March 31 were loans in support of national government projects. Loans in support of projects by the national government reached P288.3 billion, 13 percent higher than the P254.3 billion during the same period last year, according to LandBank.
“These include loans to MSMEs, which rose to P59.6 billion, from P54.6 billion in the same period last year, of which P7.2 billion was lent to microenterprises, while P52.4 billion supported small and medium enterprises,” LandBank said.
LandBank remains the biggest credit provider to SFFs, and LGUs, and the biggest lender to MSMEs, among government financial institutions.