TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Some 8,000 farmers of the city will receive financial assistance from the Survival and Recovery Assistance (SURE) Program of the Department of Agriculture.
City Agricultural Services Officer Jullibert B. Aquino said the assistance is given to help farmers cope with the effects of the community quarantine.
Under the program, the DA provides P25,000 collateral-free loan, payable in 10 years with zero interest.
The loan is released by the Land Bank of the Philippines to conduit groups like farmer-cooperatives, farmer-associations and irrigators’ associations, which re-lends the money to individual farmer-borrowers.
To defray administrative expense, conduits charge a service fee ranging from P700 to P1,000 from the loan proceeds.
Beneficiaries of the aid, Aquino said, are small farmers cultivating an area not more than three hectares.
Under DA’s farm intervention program, all farmer-beneficiaries must be listed in the Registry System for Basic Sector of Agriculture, Aquino said. – Larry Lopez
