State-owned Land Bank of the Philippines has distributed so-called intervention monitoring cards (IMCs) to a total 235,145 beneficiaries across the country as of end-June this year.
The lender said the IMC secures the cash assistance of P5,000 for beneficiaries of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund-Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RCEF-RFFA) program.
It has 110,600 more IMCs for distribution until August this year.
“Landbank remains at the forefront of providing timely support to small farmers all over the country. Together with the DA (Department of Agriculture), we will continue to ramp-up the distribution of cash cards to help increase agricultural production and income.”
Lynette Ortiz, Land Bank president and chief executive officer
The RCEF-RFFA program offers crucial financial support to smallholder rice farmers registered under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture who cultivate rice lands measuring two hectares and below.
Landbank serves as the disbursing arm and as part of the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law.
Earlier, the bank said it will collaborate with the Department of Agrarian Reform to expedite the processing of the remaining P43.17 billion principal loans of over 385,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
Landbank said this forms part of efforts to implement the new law that frees ARBs nationwide from agrarian debt.
Under the New Agrarian Emancipation Act only recently signed, the national government writes off land amortization managed by Landbank amounting to P57.74 billion as of end-June 2023 to relieve over 649,000 ARBs tilling 1.17 million hectares of land from debt.
Of the P57.74 billion, the national government will condone outright P14.56 billion in principal loans of over 263,000 ARBs upon the effectivity of the law.
