WE WERE like “Botatews,” moving from place to place in the mountains, with our light illuminating through the darkness.
“Botatews,” are mysterious lights parading in the forest, where there are no human trails.
According to old folks in Mountain Province, the “Botatews” are harmless ancient spirits passing through, and do not come into contact with human beings. I wonder.
Unlike “Botatews,” we are two people in a car, breezing through the Halsema, on a mission. I glanced at my watch and it is already 4 a.m. We need to be in our destination before the first light of dawn pierces the sky. That would be between 5 to 6 a.m. when the frost forms on the surface of the farms in Paoay, Atok.
“There is plenty of time,” Mr. Tillo Bagnos, my driver-companion says, glancing in my direction. But he drove through the mountains, breezing through every curb and bend on the road, like the wind. There was no traffic at this time of the day, just great.
Changing the topic, he says that he has several relatives who are into vegetable farming. The main topic of our discussions every time we are gathered is about “capital,” he added.
Among small vegetable farmers of the highlands, “capital” refers to money for seeds, fertilizers, pesticide, and transportation expenses, from seed to harvest.
Most small farmers borrow their “capital” from traders and merchants who impose stiff interest on the borrowed amount. A dealer-farmer partnership along kinship lines has also emerged as an added feature of the production, loan, and trading of vegetables.
It would take a comprehensive study to affirm or make a judgment about the interest of loans collected by private investors from the farmers and to establish their roles and the benefits of their activities to the industry.
According to Mr. Bagnos, all “capital” loans by farmers are collected immediately during delivery of their harvests at the trading post, whether the farmer earned a good profit or not.
Some farmers who would not earn enough from their harvest to last them until the next crop have no incentive at all to deliver their produce to the market. It is as if they are laboring only for the benefit of the rich traders and merchants, Mr. Bagnos said.
Loans that are friendly to small farmers is what our people need, Mr. Bagnos pleaded with me, like I have all the money to spare for his people.
As Mr. Bagnos see it, farmer-friendly loans come with little interest or are non-interest bearing, and should be collected when the earnings of the farmer from his harvest are not enough to tide him over until the next harvest due to market gluts and other calamities beyond his control.
“Reasonable enough,” I responded, “and the loans you seek are now accessible by small farmers, right at their backyards,” I added.
We discussed these loans, along the road, that our farmers can avail through accredited farmers’ cooperatives and associations as lending conduits by the DA-Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC). These lending conduits were endorsed by the DA Regional Office, DA Attached Agency, and/or LGU.
The DA-ACPC easy access loan programs are as follows: Production Loan Easy Access (Plea); Survival and Recovery Loan (Sure); Working Capital Loan Easy Access (Clea); and Farm Machinery Loan Easy Access (MLEA).
“So there are several farmer-friendly loans available for our farmers from the government,” Mr. Bagnos said smiling.
“Yes,” I said, “and I can understand why your relatives may not have accessed it yet. It is only now that easy access loans are being made available to small farmers through their associations or cooperatives,” I explained.
When Secretary Emmanuel Piñol first came to the Cordillera, he talked about piloting a farmer-friendly loan which he introduced to the farmers of Cotabato while he was yet governor of that province.
On his second visit, Secretary Piñol announced: “Our small farmers are bankable and who says they are not.” He then cited an example, the P20 million he allotted for the piloting of the “Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA),” with farmers in Benguet that were fully paid when it was due. He then doubled the loanable amount and asked ACPC to continue implementing the program.
Ms. Kristle Ann Balingan, the one-woman army and ACPC focal person for Benguet, and OIC for Abra, Ifugao, and Mountain Province, reported that the small vegetable farmers who availed of the PLEA loan have been repaying their loans back in full.
She added that from 2017 to date, a total of P98.8 million Plea credit fund was approved for Benguet Province, and some P55.290 million of this amount was already released to the farmers.
P41.940 million of the loans has matured and were collected from the borrowers with 100% repayment. This means that the amount loaned to the individual borrowers were returned in full, according to Ms. Balingan.
There are no Sure loan releases yet for Benguet and the entire CAR, according to Ms. Balingan.
Specifically for Benguet Province, she said that there are 5 Sure loan lending conduits under process with a total credit fund of P9.725M for 389 farmers.
The following farmers associations and/or cooperatives serve as the lending conduit for the DA-ACPC PLEA Credit Fund in Benguet: 1) Benguet Traders MPC-Provincewide; 2) BABUDEMPCO-Buguias; 3) Mt. Blooms MPC-Atok; 4) Bashoy FMPC-Kabayan; 5) SRT LCB-Provincewide; 6) LATOP MPC-Provincewide; 7) Sheckdan Strawberry GPA-La Trinidad; 8) Baculongan Norte FA-Buguias; 9) Oclupan Clan FA-Provincewide; 10) Apanberang FA-Kabayan and Buguias; 11) Lengaoan Indigenous MPC-Buguias; 12) Cattubo MPC-Atok; 13) Topdak MPC-Atok; 14) Pakiya MPC-Bokod; 15) Tabano Omang Livelihood Project Organization-Atok; 16) Tawangan MPC-Kabayan; 17) Bokod Sulfur MPC-Bokod; 18) ACOGMA-Atok, reported Ms. Balingan.
Most of our highland vegetable farmers cultivate small plots of land, unlike in the lowlands where farms are reckoned in hectares. Indeed, farmer-friendly production loans are critical to their livelihood.
The farmers and their organizations understand this too well, I told our friend as we reached our destination.
May they all be light in the darkness by doing their part well in sustaining the great service and repayment of their loans that now serve as models for the benefit of the nation’s small farmers, who also need easy-access production loan, I concluded.
Mr. Bagnos nodded, and I seem to know what he is thinking - his relatives and how they would avail of the loans. They should become members of DA accredited cooperatives.