The Department of Agriculture (DA) has ordered a one-year moratorium on the payment of outstanding agricultural loans, in a bid to cushion the impact of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine to farmers and fishermen.
“In times of this crisis, we understand that their health and safety should be the priority. Our farmers and fisherfolk are also considered front-liners because they continue to provide us with food despite the calamity we are facing,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a statement.
“This is why we allowed the DA-ACPC (Agricultural Credit Policy Council) to implement a one-year moratorium on our partner lending conduits,” he added.
Legitimate and duly registered farmer’s groups and cooperatives are beneficiaries of the P2.3 billion worth of loans from the DA’s credit arm. The moratorium will be in effect until March 16, 2021.
There are more than 77,000 farmers in Luzon are expected to benefit from the loan payment suspension.
With the continuous work being done by agricultural stakeholders during the enhanced quarantine measures, Secretary Dar has appealed to local government units (LGUs) to source their food needs from local farmers.
The farmer associations and cooperatives in Palawan were recipients of these agricultural loans, said Vicente Binasahan Jr., agricultural production coordinating officer (APCO) of Palawan Agricultural Experimentation Station (PAES) based in Sta. Monica, Puerto Princesa City. In fact, his staff are processing loan applications to assist farmers and fisherfolk and fast track their availment of the agricultural loan.
Raymundo Imaysay, chairman of the Palawan Agrarian Reform Communities Cooperative Federation (PARCCOFED) said that their group is among the beneficiaries of the ACPC agricultural loan. PARCCOFED is a federation of 27 agrarian reform communities in the different towns in the entire province of Palawan.
He said that their group now have tractor and harvester that help them mechanize their own farms and as well as the farms of the federation members. Their group also earned income, whenever some private owners rented their equipment.
Imaysay further explained that the DA’s loan assistance benefited not only farmers, but farm laborers whose work reduced due to the mechanization in rice farms. He said that Narra Agricultural Labor Force Association (NALFA) based in Narra, Palawan was formed to organize farm laborers and avail of the government’s assistance to the agricultural sector. He explained that unlike rice farmers who own a rice field, farm laborers are only working for the farmers and farm owners.
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