WITHOUT going into detail, President Marcos said in his recent second State of the Nation Address that his government will continue implementing agrarian reforms. He noted his approval of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act (Republic Act No. 11953), which writes off the loans of 610,054 agrarian reform beneficiaries estimated at P57 billion.
The land beneficiaries are wallowing in debts. Why?
Because 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) is this – a farmer is 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 is wanting. It lacks 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.
Most of all, there must be strict regulation in the conversion of irrigated farmlands to mainly residential and industrial uses. These lands were irrigated for a long-term food rice/food sufficiency purposes, and the amount spent on this should not go to waste. Our rice insufficiency can be blamed in part on the mismanagement and unregulated conversion of our irrigated lands.
