The Land Bank of the Philippines in Bacolod City will award today the P3 million loans to the Carmenchika Agrarian Reform Beneficiary Association of Pontevedra.

It will be the first organization to benefit the credit assistance program of the Department of Agrarian Reform, Ronald Gareza, DAR-South chief agrarian reform program officer, said.

Gareza said the association will enjoy 8.5 percent interest rates from LBP that is much lower than private financing institutions.

The association will get a 2 percent rebate when full payment is made before due date, so the interest rate becomes 6.5 percent.

This is not much of a burden especially for small farmers as this will help them improve their production and acquire farm equipment they need using the CAP funds, he said.

Gareza said the Carmenchika ARB Association is one of the 30 organizations they are assisting. Of the 30, 25 have submitted their proposals to Land Bank, while 12 have been evaluated for the credit investigation and crop inspection, he added.

He also said they have provided capacity training on governance, project proposal making, and credit management to all 30 organizations to help them prepare the needed documents when they apply for CAP.

Gareza said that through CAP, they want ARBs to become farmer-entrepreneurs, put up their own businesses, and to help them to stand on their own.

DAR has allocated P1 billion for CAP, 30 percent of which, or P300 million, is poured in to Negros Occidental and 70 percent distributed to other provinces in the country, he added. *LTG

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