Role of coop banks in rural credit cited
ROXAS CITY – The government has acknowledged the cooperative banking sector as a committed player in rural financing.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said that the cooperative banking sector has remained a steadfast player in rural financing with a major portion of its loan portfolio lent to the agricultural sector, particularly to small farmers.
Yap said that there is a need for the government to further harness a conduit of rural credit to make more funds available to the small farm and fisheries stakeholders.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has earlier teamed up with a federation of cooperative banks and a pro-farmer party-list group to make available some P5 billion in loans to farmers to help ease the rural credit crunch and make the farm and fisheries sector more profitable for its small stakeholders.
In a memorandum of commitment, the DA, represented by Yap; the Cooperative Banks Federation of the Philippines (BANGKOOP) led by Hermino Ocampo; and the Luzon Farmers Party-list (BUTIL) group of Rep. Leonila Chavez, agreed to spur small agricultural financing in the countryside by tapping coop banks as a source of loans for small farmers and fisherfolk.
Under the agreement, the DA will make available a P700-million financing facility to the cooperative banking sector, which will in turn, commit to extend P5 billion in loans to small farmers.
BUTIL, for its part, will "launch advocacy initiatives that would boost cooperativism and ensure the sustainability and availability of credit to small farmers and fishers, particularly through the Cooperative Bank Agri-Lending Program," the accord said.
Recently, President Arroyo unveiled her P43.7-billion package of fresh intervention programs to sustain Philippine agriculture's high growth path and attain the country's food sufficiency targets in the face of a looming global food crunch.
Dubbed FIELDS by the President, this array of new pro-agriculture initiatives stands for the six areas of support to which Malacañang will infuse a total of P43.7 billion in government support—Fertilizer, Irrigation, Education and training of farmers and fisherfolk, Loans, Dryers and other postharvest facilities, and Seeds of the high-yielding hybrid varieties. (PIA/Jemin B. Guillermo)