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PGMA's advocacy to agriculture, land reform
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Mar 8, 2010 - 6:10:29 PM

MANILA, March 9 (PNA) -- To sustain the country's agricultural growth as well as guarantee its food security, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo launched the FIELDS program during the National Food Summit on April 4, 2008 in Pampanga, investing a total of P43.7 billion mainly for its operationalization.

FIELDS program was to be implemented by the Department of Agriculture (DA) under the leadership of Secretary Arthur C. Yap who has created a National Task Force for GMA Rice and Corn Programs to oversee the implementation of the identified components.

FIELDS stands for the six areas of support of the Philippine Government to agriculture -- Fertilizers, Irrigation and Infrastructure, Extension, Education and Training, Loans, Dryers and other postharvest facilities, and Seeds.

Initially, the program aims to boost the rice and corn productivity nationwide. It is grounded on a steadfast commitment to food security, competitive/free trade, sustainable agriculture, and profitable farm and fishery endeavor.

Due to the implementation of the FIELDS program, the country's agriculture and fisheries grew in 2009 despite the onslaught of killer typhoons in the second half of the year resulting from climate change, which has emerged as the single biggest threat to global farm production.

FERTILIZER

An advocacy campaign for organic fertilizer shall be renewed since the DA has proven that some agricultural technologies like Bio-N can be utilized to increase the yields of rice farmers, aside from the fact that the price of inorganic fertilizers has increased to 200 percent in the last two years.

Specifically for rice production, the Philippine Government, through the DA, launched a support program for the rice farmers covering both organic and inorganic fertilizers in the form of discount coupons in partnership with the Local Government Units (LGUs).

A total of P500 million was set aside from the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) for fertilizer support and production, especially for organic fertilizers.

Then Agriculture Secretary Yap said the DA has so far distributed some 9,377,997 kilograms (kg) of organic fertilizers and other soil ameliorants such as Bio-N, Vital-N and Bio-con to help farmers reduce the cost of inputs and increase their productivity; conducted Salt Fertilization Projects (SFP), wherein some 45,271 hectares were fertilized with almost 4.5 million coconut trees benefiting 45,861 farmers; distributed 2,693 soil test kits and 8,023 leaf color charts and Minus-One-Element-Technique (MOET), which will help farmers determine the optimum amounts of fertilizer to be used for specific soil types.

IRRIGATION

Under this component, the DA shall spend P6 billion a year on irrigation and another P6 billion on infrastructure, including farm-to-market roads, roll-on-roll-off ferry ports and no-frills airports for agricultural cargo.

Construction of small irrigation systems shall also be prioritized, whereas the rehabilitation of irrigation systems such as Kabulnan, Balintintingon, Malmar and San Roque shall be completed by year 2010.

As of December 2009, the DA has generated some 9,023 hectares of new irrigation areas, rehabilitated and restored 164,534 hectares and 98,055 hectares, respectively, unserviceable and deteriorated irrigation facilities; completed some 1,841 kms of farm-to-market roads; established 13 Mariculture Parks (7 for launching) in addition to the 15 that were established in 2008, and has set up 106 units of tramlines.

EXTENSION, EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The DA, in coordination with partner agencies like the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the LGUs shall continuously implement programs and training interventions for more trainers and technicians on new agricultural technologies especially designed for farmers' education.

The DA shall also collaborate with the state universities and colleges (SUCs) in its extension-related activities.

A total amount of P5 billion was allocated for extension, education and training of farmers and agricultural extension workers on new technologies and research and development (R&D) on how to increase yields and lower production costs.

Under this component, Yap said, the DA has conducted around 6,712 training and training-related activities for 145,872 farmers/fisherfolk to equip them with farming technologies that will improve their production and productivity (as of September 2009); established 5,660 techno demos to showcase technologies that will help improve farming activities; and carried out 2,284 various research and development activities to generate production-enhancing, cost-reducing and quality-improving technologies.

Specifically for rice, supplemental information was distributed particularly on the knowledge-based farming technologies such as Leaf Color Chart (LCC), Minus-One Element Technique (MOET), Palaycheck and Palayamanan system.

LOANS

Under this component of the FIELDS program, a total of P15 billion in loans and credit was made available for farmers, fisherfolk and other small rural borrowers. This is on top of the P5 billion which President Arroyo ordered for the Land Bank of the Philippines to make available to the farmers.

A total of P1.203 billion was released to 31,769 farmers/fisherfolk under the various lending facilities of the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program as of November 2009.

For January to August 2009 alone, around P5.4 billion was released by the Land Bank of the Philippines to some 169,916 farmer-beneficiaries for palay production.

The Agricultural Guarantee Fund Pool (AGFP), which was established to encourage financial institutions to lend to farmers by providing guarantee cover of up to 85 percent of the unsecured loans extended to them, has so far provided P4.169 billion worth of guarantee lines to farmers.

For rice, services such as low interest loans for farm inputs and other farm infra/machineries and Land Bank loan windows for inbred and hybrid rice production were also made available.

DRYERS

The DA, in collaboration with the private sector, was tasked to establish appropriate integrated processing and trading centers such as cold chain system and rice and corn processing centers.

For rice, a provision of 1,504 units of flat bed dryers (through the DA-Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension) and about 58 units of mechanical dryers with biomass furnace (through the DA-National Food Authority) and another 58 units for retrofitting were installed.

A fund of P2 billion was allotted for dryers and other postharvest facilities.

So far, Yap said the DA has distributed some 1,288 units of flat bed dryers in various provinces, while an additional 685 flatbed dryers will be distributed, of which 245 units have been installed or established.

The DA also established and started operating 11 Corn Post-harvest Processing and Trading Centers (CPHPTCs); completed the construction of five municipal fish ports located in Lingayen, Pangasinan; Quezon, Palawan; Pilar, Capiz; Dimiao, Bohol; and Catarman, Camiguin.

SEEDS

The DA shall support the seed growers as their success will enable the rainfed-lowland areas presently planted to good seeds to be migrated to certified rice seeds and to hybrid seeds.

Some 600,000 hectares were targeted all over the country for certified seeds in 2008 and another 900,000 hectares for hybrid seeds for 2009-2010.

A total amount of P9.2 billion shall be allocated for hybrid and certified seed production and subsidies until year 2010 -- P6.5 billion for the use of certified seeds and P2.7 billion for hybrid seeds.

Yap said the DA has provided certified seeds to 2,959,820 hectares and hybrid seeds to 201,579 hectares in 2009 under its Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) Rice Program.

It has also distributed some 11.5 million pieces of planting materials (sugarcane, mango, coconut, cashew, citrus, lanzones, durian, cassava, mushroom [spawn], and forage cuttings) to increase production of high value crops.

About 112,757 heads of various animals (large and small ruminants, poultry, swine and dairy) were also given to farmer beneficiaries to improve the breeder base and upgrade native stocks.

The DA also distributed some 122.08 million pieces of fingerlings and 1.69 million pieces of brood stock to fisherfolk to increase fish production in aquaculture.

"As a result of the swift and stepped-up implementation of these programs, the DA has helped Philippine agriculture and fisheries grow by 1.5 percent in the first nine months of 2009 -- with livestock, poultry and fisheries as its primary growth drivers -- despite the increasingly crippling effects of climate change on farm productivity," said Yap.

In step with the Arroyo administration's goal to raise both farm production and incomes of farmers and fisherfolk, Yap said, the DA continued to carry out programs to make farming and fishing more profitable and to encourage these stakeholders to plant or produce more.

These include the President's directive in 2008 for the NFA to buy a lot more palay stocks from domestic farmers at a higher support price of P17 a kilo, or almost half more than the year-ago rate of P10-P12 a kilo.

In 2009, the NFA procured some 441,893 metric tons (MT) from domestic farmers, which is 13.4 times more than the pre-2008 average level of 33,000 MT per year.

To further encourage farmers to sell to the food agency, Yap also directed the NFA to adopt a package of incentives, including relaxation of the requirements for the quality of stocks that farmers can sell to the government as well as opening more buying stations and providing postharvest facilities in palay-producing areas.

The DA chief likewise directed the NFA to raise the support price for corn to P13 a kilo in the third quarter and similarly instructed the agency to relax its quality requirements to enable more farmers to sell their stocks.

The support price for corn was raised several times from just P7 a kilo to P10 then to P11.50 to the present P12.30 plus incentives of P0.70 for a total of P13 a kilo.

Meanwhile, Yap said the DA has started retooling its budget to enable Philippine agriculture to meet the twin challenges of climate change and the demands of global free trade.

The DA has done this by allocating 82 percent of its P47 billion budget to various support services, such as the provision of flatbed dryers, corn drying centrals, fishports, and storage warehouses for farm produce; market linkages; strengthening of regulatory and disease eradication capabilities; and the establishment of satellite-based remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS).

The DA is also strengthening its statistics and forecasting capabilities; developing and distributing climate-ready crops seeds, which are submergence, drought and disease tolerant; engineering climate change adapted infrastructure for production and processing; enabling more financing for agriculture through innovative weather-based insurance schemes; and disseminating more information, knowledge and training in crops science and planting techniques.

And, consistent with the Arroyo administration’s goal of attaining rice sufficiency by 2013, Yap said the DA is allocating 34 percent of its total banner program budget to the GMA Rice Program.

Fisheries, particularly aquaculture development, is also programmed to absorb 30 percent of the budget for programs with a hefty P1 billion program for aquaculture in 2010, he said.

On the implementation of the administration's Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), Yap said the DA, along with the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and of Agrarian Reform (DAR), was able to develop -- under the National Convergence Initiative -- some 1.67 million hectares of agribusiness and agro-forestry lands from 2005 up to third quarter of 2009.

This is equivalent to 81 percent of the two million hectares target by 2010 of the government.

In terms of jobs generation, Yap said, some 2,438,871 jobs have been generated over the period or 85 percent of the total target.

The DA was also able to develop some 1.328 hectares of land under the National Convergence Initiative of the government, which led to the creation of some 2.094 million jobs, while the DENR was able to develop 60,205 hectares equivalent to the same number of jobs, and the DAR 286,780 hectares, which corresponded to 285,028 new jobs.

Truly, the year 2009 was a banner year for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as the government agency handed a total of 4.119 million hectares of land to farmer-beneficiaries nationwide accomplished under the leadership of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Her approval of the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with Reforms (CARPER) Law have much benefited countryside farmers and their dependents.

CARPER Law is the government’s response to farmers' pleas in the agricultural sector for more time to fully implement the CARP, which expired in June 2008.

Under the CARPER Bill, some P150 billion has been allocated as outlay for land acquisition and distribution, support services, agrarian justice delivery, and other funding requirements during the extension period.

The bill likewise covers all public and private agricultural lands as provided in Proclamation 131 and Executive Order No. 229, including other lands of the public domain suitable for agriculture.

The measure stipulates that prioritization of coverage "is not necessary" and that after June 30, 2009, the modes of acquisition will be limited to voluntary offer to sell and compulsory acquisition.

The bill further provides for the creation of a joint congressional oversight committee to be composed of three members each from the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“It’s a banner year for DAR, not only because of the farm lands given to the farmer beneficiaries but also because of the approval of the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) or CARPER law,” said DAR Public Affairs Staff (PAS) director Hugo Yonzon III.

“We have completed this year the distribution of the remaining one million hectares of land. There was a lot of apprehension a year ago because everyone was speculative of the extension of CARP and distribution of land,” he said.

Yonzon also said DAR is here to stay for as long as farmer-beneficiaries and other stakeholders need us. He added that DAR is people-based, people-centered and productivity-oriented.

For 2010, the DAR aims to transfer another one million hectares of land to farmer beneficiaries nationwide.

DAR has distributed 12,668 hectares of private and government-owned agricultural lands in 2009, bringing to 4.119 million hectares the total lands distributed by DAR, benefiting 2.396 million agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) since 1972.

During the year, it also placed under leasehold arrangement 6,038 hectares of agricultural lands, securing the tenurial status of 3,198 ARBs in landowners’ retained areas and in areas awaiting CARP coverage.

The aggregate area covered now under leasehold is 1.692 million hectares, benefiting 1.194 million tenant-farmers.

The agency moduled for land survey a total of 8,362 hectares of landholdings covered by Collective Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs), and redocumented and registered individual titles covering 13,909 hectares previously covered by Collective CLOAs.

DAR also installed 2,299 farmer beneficiaries in 3,085 hectares of agricultural lands all over the country.

It has also resolved/handled 27,889 cases under the agrarian legal assistance program involving judicial, quasi-judicial, and agrarian law implementation cases and settled/disposed 17,297 agrarian disputes and conflicts through conciliation and mediation.

The agency also resolved 8,347 agrarian cases under the adjudication process.

DAR launched 2,105 ARCs (1,991 Regular and 114 SARC) as of the end of June 2009.

The agency also delineated 112 ARC connectivity clusters as of June 2009. These clusters involved 1.737 million hectares of production area and 732,885 ARBs.

It also provided interventions to 6,179 organizations with total ARB membership of 441,865, enabling them to operate and manage their farm, non-farm and off-farm enterprises.

By the end of 2009, DAR trained 12,703 ARBs on various courses in LTI, Support to Social Infrastructure and Local Capability Building, Area-Based Rural Enterprise, and Support to Basic Social System Development.

DAR has also generated 45,952 jobs from agri-business (26,917 jobs), new lands developed for agribusiness (10,274 jobs) and physical infrastructure (8,761 jobs). It has also facilitated the development of 437 agriculture and non-agricultural products and services, and has launched some 148 products and services in commercial markets, including 14 products and services with approved permits from various regulatory agencies.

DAR has also facilitated the signing of 1,130 marketing contracts with agri-business firms amounting to P261,375,391 involving 689 ARB/Peoples’ organizations.

It has provided loan assistance amounting to P2.874 billion to 225,395 ARBs as of June 2009.

DAR also facilitated access to extension services benefiting 61,079 ARBs and 26,148 non-ARBs through establishment/maintenance of 97 KALAHI Farmers’ Centers, a one-stop center for support services availment as of June 2009.

It has also completed some 129 projects worth P594 million. These projects comprising 21 irrigation projects with a service area of 4,358 hectares; 82 farm-to-market roads with a length of 179 kilometers; one bridge with a length of seven linear meters; 24 pre- and post-harvest facilities.

It has also facilitated the completion of 33 projects worth P76 million. These basic social services facilities include two health centers, 13 water supply systems, 18 new classrooms, facilitated access by 73,732 households to barangay health units and enrollment to Philhealth of 91,098 ARB households.

DAR also granted President Diosdado Macapagal Agrarian Reform Scholarship to 3,139 deserving dependents of ARBs. Actual enrollees during the school year is 1,156.

To date, the DAR has generated a total of P76.611 billion from various foreign donor agencies and financing institutions to beef up funds for development of ARCs. This is equivalent to 59 projects (51 completed and 8 ongoing). (PNA)
DCT/LGI