Antique Farmers Benefit from DAR, DA, and LANDBANK Program

Palay farmers and irrigators in Antique benefit from the successful palay trading business spearheaded by The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Agriculture (DA), and Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK).

A P1.0M-credit was made available for BFIA through DAR under LANDBANK’s Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP) in 2016 which was used to be the capital for their new business. The BFIA has also received pre-harvest and post-harvest facilities from the DAR and the DA through the National Irrigation Commission (NIA).

Barbaza Farmers Irrigators Association, Inc. (BFIA) president Jose Magtulis thanked the collaborating government agencies that help 708 of its members, with 217 of them are agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

“Dati siyempre NIA lang ang nagbibigay sa amin ng support. Nung pumasok sa amin si DAR, nalaman naming yung APCP loan at nakapasok naman kami sa LANDBANK na naging tulay para makatulong kami sa aming mga members,” Magtulis said.

According to Magtulis, diversifying their association’s business into palay trading helped their farmers sell their crops at competitive prices.“Dahil sa APCP, nakatulong kami sa farmers kasi assured na yung kanilang produce ay mabibili. Yung association na ang bumibili ng kanilang palay, hindi na sila lugi,” he added.

Magtulis also said that by diversifying their business into palay trading helped their farmers to sell their crops at competitive prices.

The rice produced by the members of BFIA are sold in their retail stores or distributed to Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries. BFIA is one of the accredited suppliers of the program in the province.

BFIA is planning to expand their business by venturing into fertilizers and farm inputs trading to further increase the income of their farmer-members through the help of the government.

The BFIA covers a total of 706 hectares in 12 barangays of the municipality.