LAST WEEK, Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Bernie Cruz distributed a total of 179 electronic land titles (e-titles) covering a total of 249.8389 hectares of agricultural lands to agrarian reform beneficiaries in Western Visayas under the agency’s Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project.
But quite frankly, land distribution should not be the end of it. It is equally important that beneficiaries are also given sources of livelihood like farming.
Indeed, land must be made productive and profitable for farmers. The prevalent situation since 1988 (when the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was passed) has been a farmer being awarded his own land, but because of the lack of tools and know-how, the land becomes idle or is sold back to the original landowner.
For land reform to be truly beneficial to farmers, what is needed, especially in this time of high prices, is the strengthening of our farm sector with government providing all the help it can provide. The effectiveness of the agrarian reform law had been assessed. It was wanting. It lacked support services to empower farmers to better manage their land.
To empower farmers, support services must be provided such as readily available low-interest and long-term credit facilities; seeds, fertilizers, irrigation and other inputs; adequate drying and milling capabilities; market access; training and capacity-building; and full support of the Department of Agriculture, local government units and the Department of Agrarian Reform as partners-for-change.
Also, the principle of fairness and transparency must be applied to all stakeholders. There must be a settlement of all previous land acquisition as a confidence-building measure for the next wave of reformed lands. There must be just and prompt payment to all landowners for their land. There must be fairness and transparency in resolving disputes on land valuation and ownership.
