Vicmico Planters Association, multi-purpose coop extend P1-B aid, services to members

Some of the equipment and agricultural implements owned by the Vicmico Planters Association Inc. and its multipurpose cooperative for the use of their 1,500 members who are mostly ARBs. (Contributed photo)
Some of the equipment and agricultural implements owned by the Vicmico Planters Association Inc. and its multipurpose cooperative for the use of their 1,500 members who are mostly ARBs. (Contributed photo)

THE Vicmico Planters Association Inc. (PAI) and its cooperative continue to extend various services and implement support programs to its hundreds of members who are mostly agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), a statement from the group said.

The Vicmico PAI, one of the biggest planters' groups in Negros Occidental, was able to release incentives, facilitated bank loans and cash advances, quedan financing and fertilizer assistance.

Also, it made available farm equipment and other farming implements for use of planter-members, among others, amid the difficulties triggered by the slowing down of economic activities since the declaration of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic early last year, association president Aurelio Valderrama Jr. and chairman Jose Ma. Montinola said.

Valderrama said that almost P1 billion worth of services and investments, including capital outlay for equipment acquisition and infrastructure had been reported by the Vicmico PAI.

“These are services that the Board of Directors had been extending to planter-members,” he said, adding that these incentives and support programs are unique to Vicmico PAI members.

The association official added that “it is doubly rewarding for the association to support their 1,500 members, 86 percent of whom are ARBs or small farmers tilling no more than three hectares on the average.”

The press statement stated that Vicmico PAI met one of its biggest challenges in decades following the recent move of Victorias Milling Company (VMC), a publicly-listed firm, to end its 30-year business relations with the group.

This, after association leaders and members raised in an open letter VMC's poor milling efficiencies, onerous policies and lack of transparency in its manner of selling raw or refined sugar that drags down prices to a certain extent, the association claimed.

They are also trying to collect about P3 million from the mill management for their 0.5 percent participation from week ending September 9 to December 2 for crop year 2018 to 2019 and the price differential of 0.3 percent participation for week ending December 9, 2018 to the end of Crop Year 2019 to 2020.

This is on top of the yet-to-be-computed participation on the planters' bagasse used to generate electricity that could also run to millions of pesos, Valderrama said.

Cooperative general manager Christnerlyn Lingamen, in a report to the Vicmico PAI Board, said that the association's incentives and sugar price support in the last three years amounted to P20.3 million.

Its cooperative-generated sales for members is valued at P506.55 million, cooperative-extended Land Bank loans worth P82.8 million, while investment for mechanical harvesting and trucking services cost P47.65 million.

Lingamen also reported that the association’s investment for transloading stations worth P44.7 million; crop and molasses loans -- P23.64 million; pesada and cash advances -- P17 million per year; value of lands and buildings -- P85 million; quedan financing line -- P150 million; and working capital line through Land Bank -- P50 million.

The tractor and farm implements importation is pegged at about P41.41 million; fertilizer, farm chemical supplies, farm implements, truck tires sales -- P50.55 million average per year; rat bait program -- P300,000 per year, and high yielding variety (HYV) cane points program -- P600,000 per year, she added.

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