Section 3Sec./Art. 3

Definition of Terms. - As used in this Act, the term:

(a) Accredited Rural Financial Institution refers to any financial institution accredited by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) whose portfolios are substantially agri-agra related as defined by the implementing rules and regulations.

(b) Agrarian Reform Beneficiary refers to farmers who were granted lands under Presidential Decree No. 27, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law and Republic Act No. 9700 or the "Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Extension with Reforms" and regular farm workers who are landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement, who benefited from the redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced, to include the totality of factors and support services designed to lift the economic status of the beneficiaries and all other alternative arrangements to the physical distribution of lands, such as production or profit sharing, labor administration, and the distribution of shares of stock which will allow beneficiaries to receive a just share of the fruits of the lands they work.

(c) Agricultural Guarantee Fund Pool (AGFP) refers to the five percent (5%) of the 2007 surplus of the government-owned and/or --ontrolled corporations and government financial institutions including the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), the Social Security System (SSS), and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) as mandated by Administrative Order No. 225-A, series of 2008, and the penalties collected from banking institutions for noncompliance and undercompliance as provided under this Act.

(d) Agricultural Lessee refers to any person who, with or without help from his/her immediate farm household, cultivates the land owned by another for a certain price in money, in produce, or in both.

(e) Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program (AMCFP) refers to the umbrella credit/financing program of the government for the agriculture and fisheries sector created under Republic Act No. 8435, otherwise known as the "Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997". By design, AMCFP funds are provided as loans to government financial institutions (GIFs) called 'credit wholesalers', which in turn relend them to qualified 'credit retailers' that include rural banks, thrift banks, cooperative banks, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), National Food Authority (NFA) and other associations/people's organizations engaged in lending to small farmers and fisherfolk.

(f) Amortizing Owners refer to landowners who still amortize payment for the land to a private individual or to the State.

(g) Compact Farmers refer to those farmers with adjoining farms operating as a single unit under one management, farm plan and budget.

(h) Farmer refers to a natural person whose primary livelihood is cultivation of land or the production of agricultural crops, agroforest products, livestock and/or fisheries, either by himself/herself, or primarily with the assistance of his/her immediate farm household, whether the land is owned by him/her or by another person under a leasehold or share tenancy agreement or arrangement with the owner thereof.

(i) Farmworker refers to a natural person who renders service for value as an employee or laborer in an agricultural enterprise or farm regardless of whether his/her compensation is paid on daily, weekly, monthly or "pakyaw" basis. The term includes an individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, a pending agrarian dispute who has not obtained a substantially equivalent and regular farm employment.

(j) Farmer's Cooperatives refer to organizations composed primarily of small agricultural producers, farmers, farmworkers, or other agrarian reform beneficiaries who voluntarily organize themselves for the purpose of pooling land, manpower, technological, financial or other economic resources, and operate on the principle of one member, one vote. A juridical person may be a member of a cooperative, with the same rights and duties as a natural person.

(k) Farmer's and Fisherfolk's Organization or Associations refers to farmer's and fisherfolk's cooperatives, associations or corporations duly registered with appropriate government agencies and which are composed primarily of small agricultural producers, farmers, farmworkers, agrarian reform beneficiaries, fisherfolk who voluntarily join together to form business enterprises or non-business organizations which they themselves own, control and patronize.

(l) Financial Services refer to services extended by banks/financial institutions such as, but not limited to, credit/lending, deposits and rediscounting.

(m) Fisherfolk refers to people directly or personally and physically engaged in taking and/or culturing and processing fishery and/or aquatic resources.

(n) Fishworker refers to a person whether or not regularly employed in commercial fishing and related industries, whose income is either from wages, profit sharing or stratified sharing basis, including those working in fishpens, fish corral/traps, fishponds, prawn farms, sea farms, salt beds, fish ports, fishing boat or trawlers, or fish processing and/or packing plants, but excluding administrators, security guards and overseers.

(o) Owner-Cultivators refer to natural persons who own lands by purchase, inheritance, or land distribution by the State. Owner-Cultivators can operate the farm themselves, supervise wage labor or delegate operations to farmers.

(p) Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) refers to a government-owned and -controlled corporation which provides insurance protection to the country's agricultural producers, particularly the subsistence farmers against crop losses Arising from natural calamities such as typhoons, rising sea levels, floods, drought, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, plant diseases and pest infestation, and non-crop agricultural asset losses due to perils for which the asset has been insured against.

(q) Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corporation (QUEDANCOR) refers to a non-bank government financing institution (GFI) under the policy supervision of the Department of Agriculture (DA) created under Republic Act No. 7393 geared towards the establishment of an effective credit delivery system and a guarantee facility that would promote inventory financing of agri-aqua commodities, production and post-harvest production facilities, farm and fishery machineries and equipment, investment in production inputs and labor and the development of rural livelihood enterprise.

(r) Settlers refer to persons who range from the forest-clearing pioneers, including indigenous people, with a subsistence economy to the better equipped and more experienced farmers.

(s) Tenant Farmer refers to one who cultivates another's land under a sharing or leasehold agreement.

ARTICLE II

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT, INSURANCE AND FINANCING SYSTEM