State-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) disbursed a total of P1.16 billion in loans to farmers, fisherfolks, and agribusinesses in six months under its AGRISENSO Plus program.

LANDBANK reported the loans benefitted 6,853 borrowers, which also include agrarian reform beneficiaries, and funded economic activities on more than 21,000 hectares of land as of May 2025.

LANDBANK targets a minimum of 10,000 borrowers by the end of the year.

AGRISENSO Plus offers clients interest rates ranging from 4 percent to 7.5 percent per annum and repayment periods of one year to 10 years.

"As your true partners in progress, our goal is to further strengthen our agriculture sector so that we may all advance and prosper together," said LANDBANK President and Chief Executive Officer Lynette Ortiz.

AGRISENSO Plus borrowers can use their loans to quickly acquire farm machinery, pre-harvest and post-harvest facilities, and tools for pond development.

Aside from these, the loan program also offers agricultural workers and enterprises capacity-building support for growing their production and incomes under its Agri-Fishery Support through Capability Enhancement for Nationwide Development.

"We know that physical hard work is not enough. Even if you sweat too much from planting, you cannot produce high profits and volumes of harvest without the right business knowledge and strategies," said Department of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto at the recent distribution of ATMs to about 1,000 beneficiaries in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.

AGRISENSO Plus was launched in May last year and improved in October to ensure accessible financing to most agricultural workers and enterprises.

"The difference in AGRISENSO is we want to espouse cluster farming. If you will notice, it already has agribusiness and cooperative components," said LANDBANK Officer-In-Charge for Programs Management Crisso Pernito.

"One of the loan requirements to the borrowers is the endorsement from the National Irrigators Association that serves farmers who work on contiguous land," he said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who previously appointed himself as secretary of the Department of Agriculture, said officials already identified more than 300 farm clusters and over 900 cooperatives nationwide.