8 Credit Programs Of ACPC Show Filipino Farmers Are Bankable!

Above is the front cover of a coffee-table book published by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) titled The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable. The inset logos show that the ACPC is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA). The inset text says:

With credit, the ACPC looks forward to the day millions of poor farmers and fishers, along with their households, have become as resilient as the bamboo, that is, pliant, sturdy, resistant to stress, can withstand harsh weather, and thrives even on infertile grounds.

Yes, the ACPC now knows our farmers are “Bankable!” – given the ACPC’s financial assistance and supervision to individuals and groups. That is the lesson I personally learned in my field trips and subsequently singlehandedly digitally producing the above ACPC coffee-table book subtitled Celebrating 25 Years Of The ACPC. (I myself celebrated when that book came out.)

Late January in 2012, Executive Director of the ACPC Jovita Corpuz, from out of the blue picked me to produce a coffee-table book to celebrate the Silver Anniversary of ACPC on the coming 25 April, about 3 months away. Gathering her staff, she asked me pointblank, “Can you do it?” I said, “Yes Ma’am!”

(I did, a self-taught Digital One-Man Band: writing, editing, taking photographs, layouting, and desktop publishing – digital results 144 pages. 500 copies printed.)

For necessary photographs, with Allen Ducusin, an ACPC senior staff, I personally visited several projects showing success with the assistance of the ACPC, from Ilocos Norte to Nueva Ecija to Bulacan to Dumaguete City (travelled by car to near Mt Canlaon, 150 km away).

Some projects I took photographs of in place: “ACPC-Tobacco-Rice Contract Growing System” in Ilocos Sur; “Cooperative Bank Agri Lending Program” in Pamplona; “Oil-fired Palay Drier” in Villaverde, Nueva Vizcaya; “ACPC Agri-Microfinance Program” in Binangonan, Rizal – the ACPC helping small borrowers manage the risks of their enterprise. I bought a new Lumix FZ100 superzoom all-digital camera for this project. As a result of that photographic journey, all book pages had images in full color, half of the shots mine.

In summary: Under supervision of the DA, the ACPC is in charge of the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit & Financing Program (AMCFP), which is the umbrella of 8 programs (alphabetically listed):

1, Agri Microfinance Program
2, Cooperative Agri Lending Program
3, Cooperative Banks Agri Lending Program
4, Direct Market Linkage Development Program
5, Rural Household Business Financing
6, Sikat-Saka Program
7, Special Agricultural Financing Window
8, Upland Southern Mindanao Credit And Institution Building Program.

The AMCFP partners of the ACPC are the LandBank, which addresses financial requirements in agriculture; DBP, which addresses funding needs of businesses and economic sectors; and People’s Credit & Finance Corp, which addresses microcredit needs of disadvantaged people.

A good baseball team, the ACPC has all the bases covered!@517

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