The Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) has exceeded its target of providing agricultural credit worth P231.25 billion in 2019, having actually extended P236.31 billion in loans to the farm and fisheries sector as of end-December last year, representing a 102-percent accomplishment rate for this government financial institution (GFI).
A report submitted to Finance Secretary and LandBank chairman Carlos Dominguez III showed that under the helm of its president-CEO Cecilia Borromeo, the state lender also exceeded its target of assisting one million farmers in 2019 by 32,982 borrowers, representing a 103-percent accomplishment rate.
Under Republic Act (RA) No. 10000 or the Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act, banks are required to set aside at least 15 percent of their total loanable funds for farmers and fisherfolk, and another 10 percent for agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
Dominguez said LandBank has been the only lender compliant with this provision of the Agri-Agra Law.
LandBank’s agricultural loans at P236.31 billion in 2019 is equivalent to 26.50 percent of its total gross loan portfolio of P891.77 billion for the year.
Of total loans extended to the farm sector in 2019, P1.25 billion-worth of credit were channeled directly to farmers, while P43.57 billion made up loans to cooperatives and farmers’ associations, rural financial institutions and other conduits.
A total of P137.88 billion in loans went to small, medium and large agribusiness enterprises, while P53.61 billion-worth of loans went to agri-aqua related projects of local government units (LGUs) and government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs).
In terms of economic activity, LandBank extended in 2019 a total of P18.73 billion to the crops subsector, which consists of palay, sugarcane, banana, pineapple, corn, vegetables, among others.
Livestock accounted for P34.14 billion of the loans to the agriculture sector, while the share of fisheries was P1.92 billion.
Agri-processing and trading got P75.08 billion, while P106.44 billion in loans went to projects supporting the agriculture sector, such as the construction of farm-to-market roads, public markets, warehouses, irrigation systems, cold storages facilities and slaughterhouses.
On top of complying with the Agri-Agra Law, LandBank has also been working closely with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to hasten the distribution of individual land titles to ARBs to help improve their bankability.
The LandBank is also the distribution arm for the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), which provides conditional and unconditional cash transfers or subsidies to the country’s poorest households.
It is also in charge of releasing the fuel subsidy cards for jeepney operators and drivers under the Pantawid Pasada program, which is meant to ease the effects on them of the fuel excise tax adjustments under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN).
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