A lawmaker questioned the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) latest policy shift that would scrap the agency’s subsidy programs to give way to a credit financing program for local farmers. According to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, the shift was a bid to save the government billions of pesos, adding that subsidy programs bleed the government dry every year. The agency has also noted good repayment rates from local producers. The DA’s current loan programs showed promising repayment rates by farmers at 100 percent and 96 percent for beneficiaries of the Program for Unified Lending in Agriculture (PUNLA) and Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program, respectively. Villar said the agency must focus on mechanizing the country’s farmers to entice the younger generation to go into agriculture.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer September 10, 2018 04:47 UTC