DA EASY ACCESS CREDIT PROGRAM,
SAAD LIVELIHOOD PROJECTS CITED
By Manny Piñol
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in its latest report on effective programs of the government, cited two projects of the Department of Agriculture (DA) as having posted positive gains in addressing productivity and poverty in the countryside.
The Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) which allows farmers, fisherfolk and other agriculture stakeholders to borrow money from the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) through conduit banks without any collateral at 6% interest per year and the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) livelihood programs were recorded to have greatly helped the rural poor, the PSA report said.
The PLEA, along with the newly-approved Agriculture and Fisheries Machinery and Equipment (AFME) Loan Program, was designed following the realization that one of the biggest problems of agriculture and fisheries stakeholders was where to source money to buy seeds, fertilizers, fishing gears, machinery and equipment.
In this program, the DA has disbursed nearly P1-B since its launching last year and the repayment rate has been very encouraging at 96% with Cordillera vegetable farmers registering a perfect 100% repayment for their P46-M loan portfolio.
The SAAD Program, on the other hand, targets the 10 poorest provinces of the country where the DA delivers special interventions like livelihood projects which include duck raising, backyard chicken raising, native pig raising, goat raising, food processing, fish drying and packaging.
Vegetable seeds, white corn seeds and fertilizer and draft animals for members of the Tribal Communities.
While the PLEA Program was designed only under the administration of President Rody Duterte, the SAAD Program is actually a replication of what I implemented when I was Governor of North Cotabato which basically contributed to the reduction of poverty in the province from 52% in 1998 to 29% in 2010.
When the livelihood programs were abandoned in the following years, the poverty incidence in North Cotabato again shot up to 49% and the province is now back in the group of 20 Poorest Provinces of the country.
Recently, SAAD coordinator for Region IX Ronnie Cordero Dusaban sent me a copy of an article about four groups of women in Zamboanga del Norte which received several ready to lay pullets to produce eggs in their village.
Seeing the women take care of the chicken as a source of their extra income gives me so much inspiration and the determination to expand the coverage of the program.
This is the kind of program that we are offering as an alternative to the 4Ps.
Here the poor are given the financial support to start a project which could earn them more money if managed properly.
The harder they work, the more they will earn.
That is, of course, a lot better than just wait for the periodic cash dole-out from government which provides them a specific amount to spend and nothing more.
The SAAD Program and the PLEA Loaning, I believe, are the better options to cash dole-outs and the DA is showing the way.
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