COOPERATIVES, CREDIT AND SUPPORT SERVICES Sample Clauses

COOPERATIVES, CREDIT AND SUPPORT SERVICES. Section 1. The Parties shall implement a program of increasing productivity in food production to raise the income of the rural population and to attain self-sufficiency, particularly in staple crops, fishery and marine products, and livestock. Production shall be geared primarily to meeting domestic demand to achieve food self-reliance and to supply raw materials for domestic industrial production. Section 2. The Parties shall encourage, train, and support agrar- ian reform beneficiaries as well as other peasants and workers to form cooperatives to consolidate the gains of agrarian reform, raise agricultural and all related production, and promote rural devel- opment. These cooperatives can be for tree farming, orchards, fishponds, poultry and livestock, grazing and pasture manage- ment, carpentry, pooling of work animals and farm machinery, rural industries, and other areas. They shall be managed by peasant associations in their respective areas or localities. Section 3. Peasant cooperatives and associations shall under- take consciousness-raising activities regarding the sociopolitical conditions of their localities as well as the national situation. Section 4. The Parties shall ensure that low-interest or interest- free credit or subsidies are offered to peasant associations, fisherfolk and other associations of producers to enable them to expand their production and raise productivity to assure a stable supply of food and other agricultural products for the entire population. Section 5. The Parties shall reorient the Land Bank and rural banks and make their primary purpose the financing of agricultural and rural development especially in: building farm infrastructures; support for food production, including aquaculture and livestock breeding; development of non-farm rural industries; harnessing of farm waste for energy, fertilizer and other alternative uses; and the formation of cooperatives. Debts of peasant beneficiaries in con- nection with land amortization with the Land Bank (in accordance with previous agrarian reform laws) shall be condoned. Section 6. Financial assistance in the form of production sub- sidies for farm inputs and the purchase or rent of farm machinery and equipment shall be extended to cooperatives and collectives to increase agricultural productivity. Section 7. The Parties shall ensure food security and self-suf- ficiency in grains and staple crops. Prices shall be maintained at levels beneficial and encouraging to the peasan...