MANILA - The Land Bank of the Philippines has committed to triple lending to small farmers and fisherfolk over the next six years as part of the Duterte administration's goal of spurring growth in the countryside.

Landbank will increase lending to P115 billion from P37.9 billion by 2022 through a "corporative" business model, Landbank president Alex Buenaventura said.

The bank will re-engineer credit facilities for small stakeholders in the agriculture sector, and encourage them to enter into "corporatives," he said.

Under Buenaventura's proposal, a corporation would be formed to manage the consolidated farms of small farmers who wish to take part in the corporative.

The corporation would be 40 percent-owned by Landbank and 60 percent-owned by participating commercial banks while the farmers would provide the manpower to keep the lands profitable.

Ninety-nine percent of the corporation’s earnings would be distributed to the participating farmers “pro-rata according to their respective land ownership” while 1 percent would be declared as dividends of the corporate owners, Buenaventura said.

Among possible cash crops that farmers can plant under the corporative are palm oil, rubber, banana, coconut, cacao and abaca, which have high export potentials, he added.

Palay farmers who could face challenges next year with the possible lifting of the quantitative restrictions on rice could also benefit from the scheme.

Buenaventura said the proposal is being presented to various experts and stakeholders in the agriculture sector to fine tune the corporative approach, which aims to make small Filipino farmers globally competitive.