Landbank remains top lender to agriculture sector

May 14, 2023 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Contrary to claims it has failed in its mandate, state-run Land Bank of the Philippines said it remains the top lender to the agriculture sector.

In a statement, Landbank said it has remained faithful to its social mandate of promoting inclusive and sustainable development, primarily by being the biggest credit provider to the agriculture sector reaching all components of the agriculture value chain.

In the first quarter, Landbank said its outstanding loans to the agriculture sector reached P271.8 billion, representing a 14.8 percent year-on-year growth.

Of the total, P42.3 billion of the loans directly benefitted small farmers and fishers nationwide.

The bank said its total agri loan portfolio has sustained its upward trajectory with an average growth rate of 10.4 percent from 2012 to 2022, even as the agriculture sector grew sideways by an average of 0.64 percent in the same period.

As the financial intermediary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), Landbank said it has inspected and valued 1.6 million hectares of private agricultural lands distributed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to 958,623 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs), with 90,995 landowners compensated amounting to P81.7 billion.

It has also extended P2.7 billion in loans to 2,356 individual ARBs and 469 ARB cooperatives and farmers’ associations nationwide.

Landbank also said it is the only state-run bank that has continued to ramp up its digitalization drive geared toward providing safe, accessible and convenient banking service to meet the growing needs of customers.

In the first quarter alone, Landbank saw a 30 percent growth in value of transactions to P735.95 billion for its major digital banking platform.

The bank has also pushed the adoption of digital payments for disbursements and collections as it onboarded 890 government merchants and 346 private entities in the Landbank Link.BizPortal payment platform as end-March.

It has an extensive network with presence in all 82 provinces of the country, providing accessible products and services, including to underserved and remote communities.

Landbank’s touchpoints are composed of 607 branches and branch-lite units, 58 lending centers, 2,906 ATMs, 224 CDMs, and 1,751 agent banking partners POS cash-out terminals. Clients may also access 2,391 PAPI ATMs located in 7-Eleven stores nationwide.

It serves as the main distribution arm of the national government’s social protection programs, which include the delivery of cash grant to the 9.9 million beneficiaries of the country’s conditional and unconditional cash transfer programs.

Landbank has also provided assistance to various sectors of the economy affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering social amelioration support to displaced workers, small businesses, overseas Filipino workers, and PUV drivers and operators.