The Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP) program of the government, in partnership with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has introduced a lending program, as it intensifies its support for agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) and community-based organizations involved in EPAHP.
EPAHP, through the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), has provided a P2 billion budget for the program. It offers a loanable amount of up to 80 percent of the awarded contract price for goods that will be delivered by the ARBOs to a contracting government agency. Each credit facility has a short-term loan line with a five percent interest rate per annum. The EPAHP lending program is available now up to December 21, 2022.
DAR Undersecretary for support services office Emily O. Padilla said, Secretary Brother John Castriciones gave the order to start rolling out the lending program nationwide.
“As we seek to reach more farmers nationwide, we are heavily focusing on making loans accessible. The program is aggressively strengthening its goals to provide more individual borrowers with direct access to credit especially in this time of the pandemic,” Padilla said.
Padilla said a memorandum has been cascaded to all DAR offices nationwide ordering all implementers to introduce the program and orient the ARBOs under the EPAHP program with the features and details of the lending program.
In October last year, the Land Bank of the Philippines approved a P2-billion lending program that would be available to farmers who are under this marketing agreement.
“The EPAHP lending program is in support of the government’s efforts to reduce the incidence of hunger and poverty in the country. It aims to provide credit assistance to qualified community-based organizations in support of the government’s effort to address hunger, food and nutrition security, and poverty,” Padilla said.
The lending program of EPAHP will channel financing support to the sector through partner conduits such as farmers and fishers’ cooperatives, irrigators’ associations, and countryside financial institutions.
“The purpose of this loan is to finance purchase orders and/or contract receivables from government agencies for the provision of needed food items required in various government programs,” Padilla said. (Public Assistance and Media Relations Service, Department of Agrarian Reform)
