Landbank lends P205-M to 954 Kalinga farmers

CITY OF TABUK, Kalinga—Some 954 farmers gained access to Land Bank’s lending services since it opened the Cordillera Administrative Region Lending Center here three years ago.
             Albert Galut of Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) Tabuk City Branch said a total of P205.5 million was loaned to 64 conduits and 19 medium, small and micro enterprises (MSME) whose members are farmers.
           The loan was offered through Land Bank’s SIKAT SAKA Program benefitting 250 farmers; Agricultural and Fisheries Financing Program helping 242 farmers, and the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) assisting 462 farmers.

Another lending program of LBP is the Accessible Funds For Delivery to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (AFFORD-ARBs) to help   increase productivity and income of ARBs engaged in rice, corn and high-value crops production.

AFFORD-ARBs  complies  with Presidential Directive No. 2018 - 0176 dated April 24, 2018 which directs LBP, in coordination with the Dept. of Agriculture and Dept. of Agrarian Reform to reach out to farmers and provide them with financial assistance for their agricultural needs; to timely provide direct credit assistance to small farmers for crop production and acquisition of small farm implements;  and expand the Bank’s credit outreach to small farmers in line with the Government’s thrust for financial inclusion and in pursuit of the Bank’s mandate.

Department head Normandy Salagubang   explained this to 654 ARBs  who received their Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) here recently.

 Eligible borrowers are individual ARBs with emancipation patent or CLOA, and leaseholder with existing leasehold contract or any title under Agrarian Reform Programs.
           The ARB must be included in the DAR list and must be the landowner or a leaseholder.
A landowner must be an actual tiller or directly supervising farming activities and must have a land title. 

Leaseholders must have a written or notarized lease contract or similar contracts with remaining term at least equal to the term of the loan, Galut said.
            The ARB must own or till at least 0.5 hectare but not to exceed 3.0 hectares farm and no outstanding loans financed under the LBP’s various special lending programs.

Salagubang urged farmers to avail of the LBP’s financial assistance. (JDP/PAB-PIA CAR, Kalinga)