Landbank allots 60% of loanable funds to agri

The Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) will expand its loan portfolio for agriculture this year to 60 percent of loanable funds as the bank intensifies its thrust to allocate more funds to various agriculture enterprises.

Landbank president and chief executive officer Gary V. Teves said the bank’s loans to its priority clients, the agriculture-agrarian (agri-agra) sector, reached P64.3 billion in 2003, up 14.6 percent from P56.1 billion in the previous year. The 2003 amount represents 56 percent of the bank’s total loan portfolio.

"We are moving closer to achieving our aim of shifting the bank’s lending priorities from commercial credit to its original mandate of extending loans to the agriculture sector. We are even more confident that we can reach or maybe even surpass our 60 percent target for 2003," said Teves in a press briefing.

Teves said the shift is benefiting more farmers and fisherfolk, small-medium-enterprises, agribusiness, agri-infrastructure and agri-related projects.

Teves steered the bank to its new thrust when he assumed the top post in 2001. Thus, the agri-agra sector’s share in the bank’s total loan portfolio has been increasing from 36 percent in 2000, 42 percent in 2001, 50 percent in 2002 and 56 percent in 2003.

Teves, whose term as bank president ends next year, hopes to be able to further bring this up to 65 percent.

Of the P64.3 billion Landbank lent to the agri-agra sector, loans to SMEs and microenterprises got the biggest share at 14 percent or P16.6 billion. On the other hand, loans to farmers and fisherfolk accounted for 11 percent or P12.8 billion while loans for agribusiness was accounted for 13 percent or a total of P14.8 billion.

Landbank also loaned P8.9 billion or eight percent of the P64.3 billion to agri-infrastructure projects, P5.4 billion or five perent for agri-related projects, P3.1 billion or three percent for environment-related projects and P2.4 billion for livelihood loans.

As a result of its increased loans to the agri-agra sector, the number of small farmers and fisherfolk loan beneficiaries also went up to two million.

Landbank also released P17.9 billion for the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Program and P11.5 billion under SME Unified Lending Opportunities for National Growth or SULONG in the form of credit and technical assistance.

At the same time, the bank’s cash advances to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program last year reached P4.64 billion, up from P3.8 billion in 2002.

Under CARP, land transfer claims covering private agricultural lands approved for payment reached 44,940 hectares in 2003.