DA EASY ACCESS CREDIT
LENDS P1-B, 96% PAYMENT
By Manny Piñol
The Department of Agriculture’s ambitious and trailblazing rural credit program, the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA), marked its first year this month with a remarkable 96% repayment for the almost P1-B lent to farmers and fishermen all over the country.
The no-collateral loaning program which charges a 6% interest per year aims to address the lack of access to easy credit of farmers who in turn rely on loan sharks and usurers for loans which charge as much as 20% monthly.
This results in very high cost of production which is passed on to consumers and poverty in the countryside.
The PLEA Program is designed to address all three problems – credit access, high cost of production and very high poverty incidence in the agriculture and fishery sectors.
Launched in the fishing town of Malimono, Surigao del Norte on June 23, the PLEA Program was aimed at addressing the lack of credit access of fishermen and farmers who usually go to 5-6 lenders who charge usurious rates for their production requirements.
It is now accessible to organized farmers and fishermen’s groups in 50 provinces and the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) which handles the program working on its expansion to cover all food production areas all over the country.
The PLEA Program registered success stories in the Cordillera Region where Igorot vegetable farmers posted a 100% repayment rate for the initial P46-M loan facility granted to them last year.
In Malimono, Surigao del Norte, fishermen posted a 194% amortization rate because they paid their loans in advance.
In Iloilo Province, Onion farmers were able to expand their planted areas because of a loaning program which allows them to borrow up to P120,000 per hectare.
As the PLEA Program marks its first year, I will issue an order to evacluate the effects and benefits of an easy access credit program on productivity and poverty incidence.
After all, the success of programs implemented by government should be measured in the context of how it changed the lives of the Filipino people.
(Photos attached to this article were taken by the DA AFID team in Malimono, Surigao del Norte last year during the launching of the PLEA Program.)
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