Gov’t prodded on credit assistance for Lando-affected farmers

Senator Juan Edgardo Angara yesterday questioned the government’s lack of effort to help local farmers affected by Typhoon Lando find access to legitimate credit facilities and lamented that many of them have fallen prey to loan sharks.

In filing Senate Resolution No. 1626, Angara said the Senate should look into the plight of farmers who suffered from the calamity and are now caught in “debt trap” from “shadow bankers.”

In a related development, the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) said it has set aside 732 million to compensate Lando-affected farmers who lost ready-to-harvest rice, corn, and high-value commercial crops.

Angara is former congressman of Aurora where Lando made landfall last week. It is one of the provinces devastated by the typhoon.

“The lack of access to formal credit facilities and excessive interest rates charged by predatory lenders are some of the lingering problems in the agricultural sector,” Angara said.

“Small farmers who get caught in debt traps take on more and more debt at high interest rates just to minimize the losses suffered from the devastating effects of natural calamities like Typhoon Lando,” he added.

Angara said he received reports small farmers in badly affected ricegrowing regions were reportedly left with little choice but to resort to loan sharks to recover and try to finance another rice crop.

The senator pointed out that the Department of Agriculture, through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, has an existing credit facility known as the Agriculture and Fisheries Financing Program for some 40,000 needy farmers and fishermen in the country’s poorest provinces.

“Notwithstanding existing government facilities for low-cost credit to small farmers, many of them do not take advantage of these credit facilities due to various reasons which include lack of collateral to secure loans, and lack of awareness or familiarity with the processes and requirements needed,” Angara said.

According to the PCIC’s regional offices over seven regions and 34 provinces, including Luzon’s islandprovinces, showed that some 95,000 hectares of insured farms, owned or operated by 110,000 farmers, were damaged. The total indemnity payment required was estimated at 732 million. (With a report from Betheena Kae Unite)