By Pamela
Mariz Geminiano
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Agrarian Reform Secretary John
Castriciones urged farmers here on Tuesday to avail of a government credit
facility for small farmers through the state-owned Landbank of the Philippines.
Castriciones described the credit facility, which President
Rodrigo Duterte launched in a recent visit to Nueva Vizcaya this July, as
"accessible, sustainable, and very simple to avail of".
The small
loan program allows an individual farmer to avail of a maximum of PHP50,000 loan,
payable in a year at an annual interest rate of six percent or only about
PHP3,000.
The credit
facility, Castriciones said, could lift the farmers' financial condition.
Meanwhile,
Castriciones told the Benguet farmers that his department has formed a task
force to identify idle government lots that could be subjected to agrarian
reform for distribution.
He said the
act is in line with the President's directive to give to farmers
government-owned lots that have been idle for 30 years or over for agricultural
production.
He said the
government is eyeing about 400,000 hectares more under this program for
distribution to farmers.
This, he
pointed out, is aside from the 500,000 hectares covered in the past under the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
The Secretary
also relayed that President Duterte might issue an Executive Order converting
idle government lots into agricultural to serve as legal basis for the
distribution.
Castriciones
said the President had ordered his department to draft a bill that would
further extend the life of the agrarian reform program, and include a more
extensive protection and promotion of the welfare of the agricultural sector in
the country.
He said
about 70 percent of Filipinos are into farming and agriculture still needs to be
fully supported.
“The President wants to address the problems of the agriculture
industry and there is a need to strengthen the farmers,” he told agrarian
reform beneficiaries and organizations in Benguet.
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