Bacolod City (CNN Philippines) — A total of 1,550 agrarian reform beneficiaries in northern Negros Occidental received P103 million in credit assistance as of September 2015, according to the records of Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Negros Occidental-North.
The beneficiaries come from 37 organizations that applied for the Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP), DAR records show.
According to Mila Flores, Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer I, farmer-beneficiaries had been using the credit assistance for land preparation and farm cultivation, including the acquiring of seed pieces, fertilizers, and other expenses until the harvest.
Flores said that, through the APCP, beneficiaries may avoid selling or leasing the land by assisting them to continue cultivating farms to increase crop yield.
As an example, Flores cited the organizations at Hacienda Bernardito in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, whose sugarcane production have doubled from 40 to 80 tons per hectare through the help of APCP.
Flores added that they recorded a positive rate of 95 percent in 2014 and 90 percent this year in repayment of ARBs.
