By Manny Piñol
There are two types of dreams, one which comes out of your subconscious while you sleep and the other which you consciously think of every waking day of your life.
I had two “conscious” dreams which came true today, the first of which I started nurturing as a poor farm boy growing up in the villages and the other as a older man searching for greater knowledge.
Today, I took time off from my official duties as Secretary of Agriculture to make the final defence of my doctoral dissertation on the Impact of Easy Access Credit on the Life of Farmers and Fisherfolk in the Philippines.
Facing a four-person panel, I successfully defended the treatise that the availability of credit to farming families in the remote areas of the country contributed to improved productivity and reduced poverty incidence.
All members of the panel gave me the highest grade of 18 which is equivalent to “Excellent” earning for me a Doctorate Degree in Rural Development which will be officially conferred on me during graduating ceremonies on June 8.
This realised a dream I started to nurture 10 years ago to earn a Ph.D in Rural Development before I pass through this world, if only to prove that the desire to learn should not be hampered by age.
That was actually the easier dream to realise.
The more daunting dream was the one which I had in my conscious mind since I was a boy growing up in the farm.
As a young farm boy, I saw the hardships suffered by farmers who had to borrow money from loan sharks to be able to buy seeds and fertilisers and to finance their farm production activities.
This not only hampered the productivity of farmers but also ensnared them in a vicious cycle of poverty where they borrow, pay back, borrow, pay back endlessly.
Government hardly did something about this problem. In fact, farmers were condemned to neglect because most of the policy makers believed that they are high risk borrowers.
Until today, 2019, a total of 419 towns all over the country still do not have banking facilities thus pushing farmers and fisherfolk to usurers and informal lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates.
It was then when I started dreaming that someday things will change and government will finally realise that credit is needed by farmers to be lifted out of poverty.
On June 23, 2017, the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) which I personally envisioned and designed was introduced by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, the credit agency of the DA.
It did not come easy. Many policy makers opposed it citing statistics showing that banks have an 80% delinquency on loans granted to farmers.
Two years after the implementation of the PLEA, I decided to make a study of its effectiveness in improving productivity and reducing poverty.
To properly validate it, I decided to make it the subject of my dissertation which I presented today to an appreciative panel.
The verdict: the PLEA Program, in spite of corrections and improvements needed, has indeed increased the productivity of the beneficiaries and allowed them to send their children to school.
The myth that farmers and fisherfolk do not pay back their loans was also shattered with a 91% repayment rate, down from 98% last year as a result of calamities.
In other words, the PLEA works, contrary to the contention of the skeptics.
So today, two dreams were realised in one setting – a Doctorate Degree and a validation that Easy Access Credit for farmers and fisherfolk would definitely increase productivity and reduce poverty.
This happened simply because I refused to give up on my dreams.
You don’t get that lucky on a Monday!
(Photos taken by Mayette Tudlas and Jonathan Pagaduan show USM President Francisco Garcia extending his congratulations and members of the four-person panel Dr. Jul-aida Enock, Dr. Palasig U Ampang, Dr. Leorence Tandog. Dr. Jacinta T. Pueyo and Dr. Consuelo A. Tagaro, who served as Secretariat.)
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