On April 26, 2018, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Piñol introduced the Agricultural Credit Policy Council’s (ACPC) Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program in Narra, Palawan, a non-collateralized loan program made to cater the financial needs of the marginal and small farmers and fisherfolk.
In this program, they can loan up to Php 50,000.00 per borrower depending on commodity or activity with 6% interest per annum or 0.5 % per month payable for 2 to 10 years. This interest rate will not be deducted in advance from the loan.
According to Piñol, ACPC now has Php 400M that they can borrow. They only need to return the principal amount of their loan and the interest will be given to their association or cooperatives.
Only cooperatives or associations are qualified to avail the equipment loan while members are allowed to have an individual loan for seeds and fertilizers.
Piñol elaborated his proposals & recommendations that there is a chance that the 6% interest rate will decrease up to 2% as requested by Senator Cynthia Villar. Likewise, he added that the purpose of this program is to maximize the fund of the government. The borrowers will decide what type or brand of equipment, machinery, and seeds they prefer.
“Ang gusto ng gobyerno na mangyari ngayon ay magkaroon kayo ng equipment, hindi na uso ang kalabaw, maiiwanan tayo”, he added.
He announced that they will create a Loan Facilitation Team per province in order to help the qualified borrowers who want to apply for PLEA. This team will assist them in complying and preparing their needed documents.
DA-MiMaRoPa awarded Php 25,286,920 worth of agricultural goods to farmers and irrigators association. The interventions given were: one (1) unit 90Hp tractor, one (1) unit transplanter, one (1) unit recirculating dryer, one (1) unit combine harvester, one (1) hand tractor, 250 bags hybrid seeds, 2,750 bags fertilizers, 4,000 bags certified seeds (subsidy) for wet season, 3,000 certified seeds for dry season, 20 kgs. Assorted lowland vegetable seeds, 714 pcs calamansi seedling (budded), 9,000 pcs cacao seedlings (grafted), 2,500 banana (lakatan) and one (1) unit transplanter.
Also present during the biyaheng bukid were: USec for Fisheries Eduardo Gongona, DA MiMaRoPa Regional Director Antonio G. Gerundio, BFAR MiMaRoPa Director Elizer Salilig, Assistant Chief for Farm-to-Market Road Dir. Romirose Padin, ACPC Dir. Jocelyn Badiola, Congressman Roderick Abueg, Congressman Zajid Mangudadatu, Palawan Governor Jose Chavez Alvarez, Narra Mayor Lucena Demaala, Narra Vice Mayor Crispin O. Lumba, Municipal Agricultural Officer Antonio Gammad and Mr. Norberto C. Maur and Ms. Flora Ilao of ATI.
Secretary’s biyaheng bukid was held at Center Point, Municipal Building Compound, Poblacion, Narra, Palawan and was participated by more than 200 farmers and fisherfolk from Narra and from other municipalities in the province.
