Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 7) — House members said they will push for an additional ₱5-billion budget for the Department of Agrarian Reform to build mega farms that will specialize in producing a certain crop per area.
Magsasaka Party-list Rep. Argel Cabatbat and Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte said they will propose additional funds for the agency’s “mega farms” project in 2021, which will provide combined support to farm lands given to agrarian reform beneficiaries. Agrarian Reform Undersecretary David Erro told members of the Committee on Appropriations that at least 50 hectares of land will be chosen as sites for the planting of special crops per area or region, which will combine plots of land earlier turned over to beneficiaries.
Agrarian Reform Undersecretary. Bernie Cruz said it will be beneficial for individual farmers who now own land to enter into commercial and agri-venture arrangements so that they can enter into supply contracts, as he hopes to shift them away from subsistence farming – or merely planting and harvesting so they have something to eat – towards trade and product exports.
DAR has an ₱8.85-billion allocation for 2021, 7 percent lower than the ₱10.03 billion it received this year and is far below the ₱32.97 billion it sought from the Budget Department. Bulk of the funds disapproved were form the push for individual land titling towards land tenure security.
“It is not mandatory that all collective CLOAs (certificate of land ownership award) will be subjected to this… We would like to empower farmers so that they have a title of their own,” Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones said, noting that the land titles will allow farmers to use these to apply for loans. Such land titles can also be a source of state revenues via taxes.
However, Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Eufemia Cullamat questioned why the DAR is splitting farm lands into parcels only to consolidate them into mega farms. Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas added that handing out individual titles made it easier for land grabbing.
DAR has distributed 168,238 hectares (ha) of farm land to agrarian reform beneficiaries from July 2016 until June 2020. As of January, the agency still has a balance of some 523,092 ha of land for acquisition and distribution.
Meanwhile, DAR said it is providing support to farmers who have been targets of violence, the most recent of which involved the killing of nine Moro farmers in Kabacan, North Cotabato.
The agency added there are also safeguards against the illegal sale of farmlands, saying that a transfer clearance must be secured from DAR if a farmer recipient wishes to sell the property.
The House panel ended the DAR budget session after more than three hours.
