ACPC consolidates P300-M funds for agri modernization

The Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC)has pumped in P300 million to the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program (AMCFP) by consolidating the government’s various agricultural funds.

The funds, collected from terminated loans of various agricultural credit programs in the last two years, is now being used by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to provide credit assistance to critical farm and fisheries modernization projects. 

The consolidation of all agricultural loan funds, including receivables and funds from terminated programs, is mandated by the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) of 1997. The law also states that the seed fund will be channeled to AMCFP.

The AMCFP was designed as an umbrella program for agriculture and fisheries financing, replacing the fragmented implementation of various directed credit programs.

ACPC executive director Jovita Corpuz said that pursuant to the provisions of the AFMA, the ACPC worked out the issuance of a joint circular among the DA, the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), directing the transfer of all agri-loan funds into the AMCFP. 

Agriculture Secretary Luis P. Lorenzo Jr. has issued an administrative order requiring all DA bureaus, attached agencies and corporations to deposit the cash balances of their respective credit programs to the AMCFP fund. 

Corpuz said that to date, P300 million from the AMCFP fund pooled together by ACPC was turned over to the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) to bankroll  corn and fisheries projects. 

As of end-May, Quedancor has released P155.55 million for corn projects and P26.5 million for fisheries projects of which 46.7 percent was released to Mindanao, 45.6 percent went to Luzon and 7.7 percent in the Visayas.

ACPC is expanding the AMCFP this year and is currently in talks with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to work out the opening of another AMCFP window with the bank.    The ACPC assumed the task of collecting outstanding agricultural loans of the DA and its agencies because government financial institutions found it too costly to take on this responsibility.

"Our efforts to collect the outstanding loan receivables are driven by our aim to help the government sustain its credit program for agriculture and fisheries," said Corpuz.  

Loan collection efforts by the ACPC also aim to mobilize financial resources for the DA to compensate for the inadequate national budgetary support as the cash-strapped government struggles with a growing fiscal deficit.

Aside from funds generated from the consolidation of agri-loan funds, the AMCFP is also supposed to receive 10 percent of the annual budgetary allocation for the implementation of the AFMA but government has been remiss and was unable to allocate a regular budget for the AFMA credit component.