LandBank backs changes to agri law
THE Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) on Sunday expressed its full support to amend a law that will provide farmers and fishers nationwide expanded and easier access to lending.
Likewise, the state-run lender welcomed recommendations from legislators to revisit its loan application requirements, specifically for small farmers and fishers, during a public hearing on the proposed amendments to Republic Act 10000, or the “Agri-Agra Reform Credit of 2009.”
Prior to revisiting the Agri-Agra Law, LandBank said it started simplifying its loan processes.
The loan application form, it said, was condensed from three documents to just one document, and was reformatted with mostly tick boxes for easier completion.
Also, the promissory note was significantly trimmed from 14 pages to only one page.
LandBank said it has consistently complied with the Agri-Agra Law, which requires banks to set aside 15 percent of their total lending portfolio for agriculture loans and 10 percent for agrarian reform.
The state-run bank’s loans for agriculture and agrarian reform reached 76.95 percent and 11.52 percent, respectively, as of December last year.
Agriculture lending grew to P237.62 billion from P236.31 billion in 2019 and P222.05 billion in 2018.
As of March 31, LandBank’s total loan portfolio to the agriculture sector rose by 4.8 percent to P229.70 billion from P219.24 billion in the same period last year.
LandBank primarily attributed the increase to the 9.5-percent rise in loans released to small, medium and large enterprises.
Of the total amount, P36.27 billion was given to small farmers and fishers, cooperatives and farmers’ associations, rural financial institutions, and other conduits.
Small, medium and large agribusiness enterprises were granted P143.11 billion, while P50.32 billion was channeled to support agri-aqua related projects of local government units (LGUs) as well as that of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).
Meanwhile, LandBank, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Reform, has assisted a total of 2.7 million farmers and fishers nationwide as of end-March.
This represents increases of 14,147 beneficiaries from February, and 25,990 for the first three months of the year.