State-run Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) has extended to the agriculture sector P230.23 billion in loans as of October, which makes up 94 percent of its P245-billion target for 2020.
In a statement, LandBank said over 2.5 million farmers and fishermen have benefited from the soft loans, subsidies and training programs provided by LandBank as of end-October, representing a 125-percent accomplishment rate over the 2-million target set for this year.
Of the loans, about two-thirds or P145.86 billion went to small, medium and large agribusinesses. The remaining third went to small farmers, fishermen and the agri-aqua related projects of local government units (LGUs) (P35.66 billion); and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) (P48.71 billion).
LandBank President and Chief Executive Officer Cecilia Borromeo said small farmers and fishermen borrowed P1.36 billion through direct lending while loans to conduits, such as cooperatives and farmers’ associations, rural financial institutions and other lending mechanisms, amounted to P34.3 billion.
As of October, the state lender has extended P8.31 billion in loans through programs it has been administering for the Department of Agriculture (DA). These are the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, the Socialized Credit Program under the Sugarcane Industry Development Act, the Expanded Rice Credit Assistance under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, and the Survival and Recovery Assistance for rice farmers.
For programs it has been administering for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the LandBank has provided P65 million as of October.
From 1,300,135 farmers and fishermen in April, LandBank increased the number of rural folk it has assisted to 2,502,640 in the 10th month, exceeding its two-million target by over half a million, Borromeo said in her report.
Of this number, 716,931 small farmers were assisted through the DA’s Rice Farmers Financial Assistance and Financial Subsidy to Rice Farmers programs.
Through the LandBank Countryside Development Foundation, the bank trained 67,789
farmers in unbanked municipalities to help improve their financial literacy, Borromeo said.
In terms of economic activity, loans for the construction of irrigation systems and postharvest facilities accounted for P99.48 billion or 43 percent of the total.
The P74.81 billion extended to finance agriprocessing and trading activities; P36.44 billion provided to the livestock subsector, and the P17.82 billion and P1.68 billion that went to the crops and fisheries subsectors, respectively, rounded out the list of loans extended as of October.