DAVAO CITY—More farmers in the Caraga region were accessing the piloted loan facility of the Department of Agriculture (DA), attracted mainly by the far lower interest rate than those imposed by loan sharks, the regional DA office there said.
The Caraga Information Office told the BusinessMirror a total of 591 farmers in the region already accessed the loan package since June last year, when the loan facility was launched in the town of Malimono, Surigao del Norte.
The region is composed of the two Agusan and two Surigao provinces, including the island province of Dinagat.
The DA said farmers were “currently enjoying the very minimal interest rate.”
In its story dispatch last Friday, the DA Caraga office asserted the agency’s Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program as a “liberating” facility for farmers from loan sharks. PLEA, a nationwide credit program, is currently implemented in selected municipalities across the nation through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC).
The PLEA offers marginal and small rural farmers and fishermen a loan amount of up to P50,000 without collateral. “Borrowers can pay the loaned amount from two to 10 years, depending on the commodity or activity.”
“Typical Filipino farmers need financing to sustain its farm operation. That is why some of them hooked to loan sharks who charge neck-level interest. But not anymore in a barangay in the town of Esperanza, Agusan del Sur,” the DA in Caraga said.
The office added that members of the Dakutan Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative, for instance, “are now enjoying low interest-rate financing package.”
One farmer named Brigida Naparan, 59, a resident of Purok 10 of Barangay Dakutan, said she accessed P22,000 for her one-half hectare of rice farm.
“The loan I’ve got from PLEA was used for labor expenses during land preparation, planting, inputs and fertilizer,” she said. Before the PLEA facility, she used to borrow at 20 percent per cropping of rice, compared to PLEA’s interest rate of only 6 percent per annum, or 0.5 percent per month.
The DA cited another farmer, Abdul Rakman Batingal, 37, who borrowed P45,000 from PLEA and who disclosed that the whole amount went a long way to his farm. He used it to cover labor expenses for seedbed, land preparation for planting, and farm inputs and fertilizers.
“Before, I used to lend money from loan sharks who collected 10 percent per month, or 30 percent per cropping, whereas in PLEA, the interest is only 6 percent per annum, so it is really a big advantage for us farmers,” he said.
He added he was confident he would be able to pay his loan in the coming harvest.
Jose Zaldy Manug, the municipal agriculturist of Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, said the town supported the PLEA program by extending technical support to farmers to ensure a
good harvest.
The DA-ACPC has identified five lending conduits in Caraga region with an approved credit fund allocation of P40 million. It said it would increase the number, “as more cooperatives are applying to be a lending partner.”