Improving credit access for the food and agriculture sector through enhanced implementation of existing policies and new strategies

For several decades, the government has sought to develop the agriculture sector through programs like agrarian reform, agricultural modernization and rural finance, but farmers and fisherfolk remain to be the poorest sector in the Philippines. This paper seeks to explore ways to improve small farmers and fisherfolks' access to credit provided by formal financial institutions. The government needs to implement and improve on its existing programs, identified in this study, and combine these with policy reforms and new strategies to fast-track the development of the food and agriculture sector to make economic growth more inclusive.