The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the government is revamping how farm loans are delivered by rolling out a digital lending system aimed at getting financing into the hands of farmers, fisherfolk, and small rural enterprises faster.
The agency said the overhaul led by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) introduces two key tools to provide money to stakeholders at the exact moment they need capital for planting, harvesting, or expanding production.
Among the introduced tools is the Credit Fund Line facility that accelerates the release of funds to partner lenders such as rural banks, cooperative banks, and non-government organizations that serve as frontline lenders in farming and fishing communities.
Another tool is the Agri-Credit E-Portal 2.0 which is a digital platform designed to streamline the entire loan process from application to approval, release of proceeds, monitoring of fund use, and overall program monitoring to link borrowers, lenders, and government agencies in one single system.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said they are simplifying lending procedures in response to long-standing complaints from farmers, including growers of high-value crops such as onions, about the volume of documentary requirements imposed by lending conduits that often slow down loan approvals.
“Our goal is to remove the bottlenecks that slow down farm financing… By simplifying loan requirements and expanding access to affordable financing, we enable farmers and fishers to invest in production, raise their incomes, and help stabilize the country’s food supply,” he explained.
DA added the reform also targets a persistent weakness in rural finance, which is the timing mismatch between when farmers need capital and when loans actually arrive.
The agency noted that in many cases, bureaucratic delays mean funds reach producers too late in the production cycle to be fully useful.
The DA chief added that the platform is integrated with the government’s Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture and the department’s intervention monitoring database, allowing faster verification of applicants and improving monitoring of fund utilization to support a more data-driven and streamlined credit delivery system.
The agency also assured that the portal also works offline, recognizing the realities of rural connectivity, allowing farmers or lending partners to submit loan applications through laptops, tablets, or kiosks even without internet access, with the data automatically syncing once a connection becomes available.
Rallen Verdadero, ACPC executive director, said that these reforms aim to ensure farmers and fishers have easier access to financing, particularly during critical production windows, noting that “timely and accessible credit is vital to sustaining agricultural productivity and strengthening rural livelihoods.”
For this year, the council has earmarked P3 billion in loanable funds to support farmers, fisherfolk, and agriculture-based micro and small enterprises nationwide.
ACPC’s loan programs including the AgriNegosyo facility offering loans of up to P25 million at 2 percent annual interest, the youth-focused Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs program providing interest-free loans of up to P500,000, and the Survival and Recovery program extending up to P25,000 in zero-interest loans to producers in disaster-hit area
