DA-BAR opened its online seminar series for 2022 with the discussion of the lending programs offered by the DA-Agriculture Credit Policy Council (ACPC) on 18 January via the bureau’s Facebook page.
ACPC, an attached agency of DA, is an institution on agri-credit policy and program development that promotes a sustainable and effective delivery of financial services to the countryside.
Renato W. Barreiro, project development officer of the ACPC-Communications and Public Affairs Division, started by explaining the lending scheme of the institute. ACPC downloads credit funds to partner lending conduits (i.e. government financial institutions, rural and cooperative banks, cooperatives) who then loans the money to eligible borrowers.
Barreiro proceeded by discussing the features of the following: Survival and Recovery (SURE) Assistance Program, Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs (KAYA) Program, and Agri-Negosoyo (ANYO) Loan Program. All of these are offered with zero interest rate and no collateral needed.
The SURE Assistance Program is being offered to small farmers and fisherfolk from areas declared under state of calamity to finance the rehabilitation of farming, fishing, and livelihood activities of calamity-affected small farmers and fisherfolk.
Meanwhile, SURE COVID-19, implemented during the enhanced community quarantine period, offered working capital loans to agri-fishery micro and small enterprises, as well as emergency and production requirements assistance to marginalized small farmers and fisherfolk to continue operations.
KAYA offers loans to finance working capital and/or fixed asset acquisition requirements of start-up or existing agri-based projects of young entrepreneurs and agri-fishery graduates. This loan program aims to entice the youth who either attended formal or non-formal schooling (i.e. DA-Agricultural Training Institute-accredited programs and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority farm schools) to venture into agriculture and fisheries.
ANYO Loan Program offers loans to finance capital requirements of agri-fishery-based micro and small enterprises to finance income-generating activities such as production, processing, or marketing of agri-fishery products, or a combination of agri-fishery income-generating activity and non-farm micro enterprise.
To apply for these loan programs, log in to ACPC ACCeSS or the Agri-Credit Client Electronic Signup System through website acpcaccess.ph.
On top of these lending programs, Barreiro also explained that ACPC through its Institutional Capacity Building Support programs also engages state universities and colleges, government agencies, business development providers to extend business advisory or technical assistance services such as mentoring, entrepreneurship, financial literacy among other topics.