GFIs open new financing plan for farmers

Realizing the need to provide direct financial assistance to marginalized farmers and fisherfolks in the countryside, two government financial institutions (GFIs) forged recently an agreement that would revitalize the rural credit situation in the country.

The tie-up is one of the major projects that both the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) and Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) designed to sustain and put substance to President Arroyo’s thrust of alleviating poverty, generating employment and providing livelihood assistance to the marginalized sector of society.

In an agreement signed recently, Landbank agreed initially to provide an P800 million rediscounting window for Quedancor to fully implement its various agri-fishery financing projects.

Of the amount, P500 million will be used to boost the government’s hybrid rice program that will initially cover 45,000 hectares in 56 provinces. By year 2004, 300,000 hectares are expected to be planted to hybrid rice.

The remaining P300 million will be used to facilitate the different financing programs under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Countrywide Assistance for Rural Employment and Services (GMA-CARES) which are now gaining popular support from farmers, fishers, agricultural workers and the rural and urban poor.

An additional line of P800 million is being worked out under this arrangement to cover P250 million for inbred rice, P250 million for hybrid corn, and P300 million for coffee fertilization.

To date, a total of P127.8 million has already been released through the rediscounting facility of Landbank to finance the various projects of Quedancor under GMA-CARES. A breakdown of the amount showed that P52 million was released by the LBP lending center in Region V, P23 million in Region VI, P15 million in Region II, P6.8 million in Region I, and P31 million in other regions of the country.

On the other hand, Quedancor through its massive implementation of the GMA-CARES program has crafted eight umbrella projects to cater to the different members of the rural community. Under the Income Augmentation Livelihood (IAL) program, P328.67 million was released to 8,130 beneficiaries; P20 million to 2,500 enterprising individuals in the urban and rural communities under the IAL-Urban and Rural Proo program.