Financial firms asked to open loans to farmers, fishermen

Financial institutions and private banks should implement measures to open up its lending facilities to the agriculture and fishery sectors, said councilor Edgardo Labella recently.

Labella had proposed to the city council a resolution urging these financial firms to make lending transactions easier to these rather large sectors.

The councilor cited a study, conducted by the banking sector and reported by the Agriculture Credit Policy Council, which shows that the demand for credit from the agriculture sector is estimated to reach P500 million annually, for which ACPC can provide only P300 million.

The study also shows that about 40 percent of the category of borrowers go to non-formal loan sources that charge very high interest rates.

Labella said Presidential Decree No. 117 or the Agri-Agra Law requires big private, commercial, and thrift banks to lend 25 percent of their loan funds to farmers.

He also said the Agriculture and Fisheries Act intends to alleviate poverty and promote vigorous growth in the countryside "through facility to credit by small farmers, fisherfolk, small- and medium-scale enterprises, and industries involved in agriculture and fisheries projects."

Labella said that Section 21 of the AFA provides that all loanable funds, under the Directed Credit Programs, including receivables, will be collected and consolidated into the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program, an umbrella financing program for the agriculture and fishery sectors.

People from the agriculture and fishery sectors, who will eventually borrow from banks, could ease up considerably their financial woes if they maintain good credit standing with prompt repayment of their bank loans, he said.

Labella said Cebu City still has a sizeable number of residents whose main source of income are fishing and farming, especially those in the mountain barangays where they have been engaged in cultivation of corn, cutflowers and mango. - Joeberth M. Ocao