The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) eyes to initially enroll 50,000 farmers for the entire dry cropping season under its Agri Puhunan at Pantawid (APP) loan program.

Dry cropping season for rice is between September and February while wet cropping season is from April to August.

Roberto Antonio, DBP board director, told reporters in a briefing  in Quezon City yesterday the program aims to stop the cycle of high interest loan rates that burdens rice farmers in the country.

Antonio said the lending program launched last week in partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA), has secured the

initial P3 billion funding to provide a combination of low-interest loans and subsistence allowance for farmers.

DBP explained the APP loan program will involve the distribution of intervention monitoring cards (IMCs) to enrolled beneficiaries for the  purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and ameliorants as well as to pay for services through merchants accredited by state-run firm Planters Products Inc. (PPI).

Rice farmers tilling at least one hectare and maximum of two hectares of land and are registered under DA’s Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture can avail the APP loan program.

DBP said  a beneficiary of the APP loan program who plants rice on a one-hectare land will receive a net amount of P58,000 to cover production costs inputs, land preparation and hauling.  He also gets a subsistence allowance of P32,000 that will be given in tranches of P8,000 for four months.

“Because of this, we lift the burden of high interest loans. What we only want in exchange is that they sell five tons of their production to the National Food Authority at a price that will not be lower than P21 per kg,” Antonio said.

Antonio said the loans carry an interest rates of 2 percent or about  P500 to P600 per beneficiary.

Antonio assured security measures were put in place to avoid possible abuse of the program  and to ensure its sustainability.

Antonio said IMCs can only be used by the registered beneficiaries as the program will require facial recognition and personal appearance of farmers to purchase farm inputs. 

He  said  crops tended by beneficiaries of the APP loan program will also be covered with crop insurance.

DBP added  PPI will have a dashboard to monitor in real time purchases made by beneficiaries as well as the deployment of farm inputs from accredited merchants. Field personnels will also visit farmers to make sure  outputs are being utilized as intended.

Antonio said  the APP loan program may in the future be applied to farmers planting  other  food crops.

The APP loan program currently has 5,000 enrolled beneficiaries in Guimba, Nueva Ecija. The program will be expanded to rice farmers in the northern part of Luzon as well as in ready areas in Visayas and Mindanao.

“The money for this program will circulate during the planting season. This will be sustainable as long as farmers  comply with the guidelines of the program,” Antonio said.

“Food security wise, we want to tap as much as one million farmers under this program that will be equivalent to five million tons of palay every harvest season and we have two planting seasons. That will be a big help for our rice requirement,” Antonio added.