PUGO. La Union – In times of need, a farmer or even an honest and ordinary Filipino residing in the countryside, for that matter, will be happy to make a loan or undertake a credit agreement with an individual or institution.
You can validate that with the farmers themselves or with community development officers working directly with them. The consistency of that claim was again drilled into my mind during discussions I had with our agricultural technicians from the provinces. They said that farmers will always avail themselves of credit for their production inputs and other livelihood and emergency needs.
For the past decades, the problem is that our credit institutions do not trust the farmers. They have set-up a high wall of requirements for farmers to pole vault if they are to avail of any credit from the banks or lending institutions.
“The tedious bureaucratic process in availing of credit asks several questions (three-pages) from the farmers. That is on top of the preparation and submission of a feasibility study, and submission of resolutions of endorsements from the Barangay Captain, Municipal Mayor, and even Provincial Governor. The questions and requirements need the assistance of a well- trained professional who will process the documents, according to the agricultural extension workers (AEWs) of the local government units (LGUs) I have been talking to lately.
Mr. Julibert Aquino, City Agriculturist of Tabuk City, says that many farmers complain about the lack of credit but would no longer care anymore to inquire from the government about it. “They do not have the time to spend and comply with the documentary requirements of government and commercial credit institutions,” he explained.
Mr. Domingo Mariano, Provincial Agriculturist of Ifugao agrees with the need to make farmer-friendly credit schemes accessible in the countryside.
Loan sharks and their 5-6 credit schemes thrive in the country precisely due to the difficulty of availing formal and socialized credit for productive purposes. Those engaged in this business make credit easier and penalize the needy for the service that they provide.
Both Mariano and Aquino are participants in the workshop that gathered LGU agricultural extension workers from the Cordillera in this strategic resort town to craft a roadmap for the region’s corn industry.
Credit is a critical resource needed by the farmers usually during the planting and harvest seasons. Farmers need more credit during the year for seeds, fertilizers, and equipment especially when a calamity has affected their crops, the AEWs explained.
The mistrust by formal lending institutions on the bankability of farmers is misplaced, Aquino pointed out.
He narrated an instance when the DA provided a “Ford” tractor to a farmers’ group in Tabuk City, Kalinga. The preferred tractor by the farmers was the more durable “Kubota” but the DA has to follow government procurement procedures and awarded to them the cheaper equipment.
The Ford tractor lasted for one year in the hands of the farmers. Later, the farmers’ decided that if they have to spend money for the operation of a tractor, it was best for them to procure a Kubota on a loan basis and serve more of their members, according to Mr. Aquino.
With good equipment, the farmers did not only repay their loan in time but managed to increase their production of rice and corn, according to Aquino.
DA Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol heard similar stories directly from the farmers during his “Byaheng Bukid” sorties all over the archipelago. The stories informed him well when he directed the Agricultural and Credit Policy Council (ACPC) to prepare a credit program that would truly serve the farmers when they needed credit. Unlike any of the past credit programs of government, he did not like a credit program whose funds are deposited and locked in the banks by bureaucratic procedures and requirements.
The ACPC’s response to the Secretary’s directive was a farmer-friendly loan program called “Production Loan Easy Access Program” or PLEA that is fast, convenient, and affordable to farmers.
The concept and operational structure and system of the PLEA was explained by Secretary Piñol in a recent consultation with vegetable farmers, at the La Trinidad-based Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) last month where he also lamented how farmers suffer the indignities of being told to accomplish so much paperwork and then wait in limbo for the money they need to produce the nation’s food.
At the most, farmers can probably answer only five questions with the help of a team at the credit desk, in the regional office or provinces. In about 30 minutes, a farmer needing credit should sign the credit statement that he will keep and the other filed by the lending institution and then goes home with the money that he needed.
In our discussions with the AEWs, I told them that the PLEA was piloted in Benguet and in a marginalized fisherman’s community in Surigao. Why?
Here I can only assume that like most of the ideas and programs that he introduced so far, Secretary Piñol needed fast but sure results, like “if marginalized farmers can do it well under difficult conditions, what prevents better-situated farmers from doubling or tripling the results.” Right now, he is also piloting the implementation of three more programs on climate-smart agriculture, small livestock production, and modern agriculture in Benguet and Mountain Province. He also sent strawberry runners which he sourced in a recent visit to Korea to be tested and grown first at the Bureau of Plant Industry Compound in Guisad, Baguio City.
Specifically for the PLEA, what is needed now is to fully document the structure, process, strategies, lessons, and the best practices that evolved during its piloting in Benguet Provinces. Encouraged by its success, the Secretary pumped in more funds to upscale the program. He meant to also tell the DA-CAR and the locals that we are responsible in developing success stories from the investment and sharing the same to our needy brothers and sisters in the Cordillera and the country as a whole.