By Manny Piñol
Farmers who have been at the mercy of loan sharks and traders who lend money at usurious rates will now have a relief.
The Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) and the National Food Authority (NFA), both under the Department of Agriculture (DA), will launch starting this planting season the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) credit program for rice farmers who will sell their produce to the NFA.
The loan will be offered without any collateral at 3% interest for six months payable after the harvest season with a maximum loanable amount of P50,000.
The PLEA program is the government’s intervention to provide farmers an option to their “cash advance” requirements which they usually get from loan sharks and local traders who charge between 5% to 10% interest rates per month.
The “Cash Advance” practice also holds the farmers to an unwritten commitment that they deliver their produce to the money lender which is usually bought at the price dictated by the buyer.
Under the DA-ACPC-NFA Loaning Program, a rice farmer who wishes to avail of the facility will have to go to the nearest NFA buying station or office to register.
As soon as he is registered, the DA through the Information and Communication Technology Service (ICTS) will conduct a validation of his farm location, the size of land and his projected production through aerial mapping, geo-tagging and geo-referencing.
All the information will be stored in a database which will be accessible only to key officials of NFA, ACPC and DA.
Once he is validated, the farmer will be asked to sign a marketing agreement with NFA which stipulates that he will sell his produce to the agency and that he will allow the agency to deduct the PLEA loan he obtained from ACPC.
The farmer who avails of the PLEA credit program will automatically be covered by the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC).
The ACPC-NFA PLEA credit facility will be officially launched in Sultan Kudarat Province next week where farmers have already harvested their palay and are now preparing for the next planting season.
(Photos of meeting of ACPC, NFA, PCIC, ICTS officials yesterday taken by Mayette Tudlas. Photo of farmers selling palay to NFA provided by DA XII while images of farmers database from Noel Degamo.)
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