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DAR vows securing farmers’ soft loans
The Department of Agrarian Reform has committed assistance to farmers by securing loans from banking institutions to elevate their lives and livelihoods, as anchored in the Kapatid Angat Lahat Agri Program with Private Sector Advisory Council-Jobs Sector Group Joey Concepcion in the lead. Conrado Estrella made this assurance during his meeting with Concepcion on Monday, along with other stakeholders in the agriculture sector. “We thank the Department of Agrarian Reform for expressing willingness to help our initiative to help our farmers scale up. Uplifting the lives of our small farmers is a daunting task. We need all hands-on deck to accomplish this, and we are glad that we have DAR Secretary Estrella’s commitment to extend a helping hand,” Concepcion said. During the meeting, Concepcion emphasized the need for small farmers to achieve scale, saying it would be hard for them to succeed without it. “Farmers cannot obtain a loan from banks that they can use to boost production and improve their lives because they cannot use their land as collateral under agrarian reform law,” he said. Farm clustering Among the recommendations by KALAP and the think tank group Foundation for Economic Freedom, represented by Dr. Fermin Adriano, is the implementation of farm clustering to boost productivity and help ensure food security. “Clustering does not mean consolidation of land ownership but merely the clustering of land for better production scheduling,” said Adriano, adding this process has already led to higher farm productivity in China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, among others. “The process would enable the government to effectively provide assistance to farmers who are clustered because it will deal with groups rather than millions of individual small tillers,” he added. He said clustering would also pave the way for the use of modern farm machinery and technologies, thereby achieving economies of scale, and allowing the development of downstream industries like food processing activities, because of an adequate and reliable supply of raw materials. Improve access to government services On the other hand, he stressed that the process would also improve access to government services like extension, and credit for clustered farms. Farming will also be more attractive to private sector groups to invest in agriculture because of lesser transactions. To accelerate farm clustering, Adriano called for the immediate and proper implementation of the law condoning the debt of defaulting agrarian reform beneficiaries. “The implementing rules and regulations of the law must ensure that the administrative burden of transferring land ownership to farmer beneficiaries is not burdensome and allow beneficiaries to enter into a leasehold contract agreement with investors but ensure that land will not be converted to non-agricultural uses,” he said. Adriano also advocated for the promotion of agricultural joint-venture agreements between small landowners and agribusiness corporations. Estrella, for his part, expressed support for the proposal, saying the DAR can check within their network of beneficiaries. Big brother companies The DAR chief also lauded the KALAP’s big brother companies for their commitment to sharing their technology and best practices with the DAR and their willingness to become an assured market for the farmers. “I am happy that KALAP’s big brothers are willing to share their technology with DAR. We want to tap into the knowledge of the big brothers to better prepare the beneficiaries of agrarian reform so that the land will be utilized properly,” Estrella said, adding they can also help extend credit assistance to agrarian reform beneficiaries if needed. Meanwhile, National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Administrator Eddie Guillen said the private sector plays a huge role in the success of the agriculture sector. “Around 80 percent of the success of the agricultural sector depends on the private sector. If magsucceed ito sa mga agri reform beneficiaries, mas madaming makikinabang,” he said. Guillen also revealed that President Marcos wants to harmonize concerned agencies and their functions, instead of establishing a task force. President Marcos earlier ordered the geomapping of all agricultural lands in the country to establish soil maps for specific agricultural products to ensure increased yield and improve farmers’ income. The post DAR vows securing farmers’ soft loans appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
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