SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya – Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Brother John R. Castriciones has expanded the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to include retirees of the agency “for as long as they are graduates of any agriculture-related courses.”

Brother John announced this, January 18, 2021, during the distribution of individual Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs), covering 111.29 hectares of farmland, to 88 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Barangay Baretbet, Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya.

“This is our way of expressing our gratitude to our retirees for the services they rendered and for sharing their expertise to the Department,” Bro. John said.

Bro. John explained that the move is intended to preserve the agricultural lands for the country’s food security program as “it gives our soon-to-be retiring DAR officials and staff new avenues to practice their know-how for food production.”

He said that the move is based on the presumption that “he who takes agricultural courses will embrace farming with all their heart.”

Earlier, the DAR chief also made a similar encouraging announcement when he declared that fresh graduates of any agricultural courses are eligible to avail themselves of at least three hectares of farmlots to serve as farm laboratories on which they could apply the theories and best practices that they learned from their schooling.

Bro. John said the three-hectare to be awarded to CARP beneficiaries applies to all, be they landless farmers, agricultural courses graduates, or DAR retirees, who are themselves graduates of agricultural courses.

The DAR Secretary is resorting to this move after receiving alleged mind-boggling reports that some farmer-beneficiaries are either selling or pawning farmlots awarded to them under the government’s land reform program.

The said reports prompted Bro. John to launch the “Kumustasaka at ARBisitahan” program last January 17, 2021 in Nueva Vizcaya to determine the true state of the country’s land reform program.

The new program seeks to find out who the existing owners of land reform-covered farmlots, the crops planted on them, and the kinds of support services that are needed to enhance farm productivity.

DAR Undersecretary for Support Services Emily Padilla said the Kumustasaka and ARBisitahan program aims to pinpoint the actual farmer-beneficiaries and ensure that all assistance being provided by the DAR would not fall on the wrong hands.

Padilla said she had observed in past distribution of relief goods and farm inputs under the “PaSSOver ARBold Move for Deliverance of ARBs from Covid 19” that “some recipients are not actually farmer-beneficiaries.”

Undersecretary for Planning, Policy and Research Virginia Orogo said the activities would be of great help for the DAR to figure out how far the government’s land reform program has gone after 48 years of implementation.

Orogo said that it’s about time that the DAR comes up with a complete profile of each agrarian reform beneficiary to see the rate of progress of the program.

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DAR-Mountain Province PARPO Jane Toribio during the sustainability planning for the development of sayote farming and turnover ceremonies of the farming equipment and materials.

DAR urges sayote farmers to desist from cutting trees

BAUKO, Mountain Province – The Department of Agrarian Reform has challenged the Sayote farmers here to help maintain and preserve the ecosystem by desisting the urge of cutting trees in their attempts to expand their farming areas.

Provincial agrarian reform program officer Jane Toribio raised the issue during the sustainability planning for the development of sayote farming without disturbing the ecology and the environment and turnover ceremonies of the farming equipment and materials under the Convergence on Livelihood Assistance for ARBs (agrarian reform beneficiaries) Project [CLAAP] held in Barangay Monamon.

Forty-three farmers of the Bauko Organic Practitioners Credit Cooperative (BOPCC) and Monamon Federation of Irrigators Association (MONFIA) benefitted from the CLAAP program providing them with farming equipment and materials which will be used for the construction of concrete poles for their sayote farms.

“The poles will serve as the climbing posts for the sayote plant, which is classified as a vine that creeps and climbs in open space, prompting some farmers to cut trees in a bid to expand their farms,” said Toribio.

Toribio said the construction of poles should help as much as they can in preserving the balance of nature as the sayote plants are confined within a given area.

“We urge you not to cut trees in your sayote farms. We must be vigilant in our care for the environment. I encouraged you also to venture into coffee as an alternative plant.

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PRDP provides marketing projects to 3 Zambales farmers’ organizations

THE Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) has picked three (3) agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) in Zambales to be the recipients of marketing projects aimed at increasing their income, enhancing economic activities, and spurring rural development.

Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Zambales provincial agrarian reform program officer, Engr. Eric T. San Luis identified the three lucky ARBOs as the Santa Cruz Mango Growers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, the Amungan Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and the San Marcelino Corn Producers Cooperative.

San Luis said the projects include the establishment of two (2) mango trading stations, one in Santa Cruz for the Santa Cruz Mango Growers MPC and the other in Iba town for the Amungan Farmers MPC. The cattle breeding farm would be put for the San Marcelino Corn Producers Cooperative in San Marcelino, Zambales.

San Luis said the projects would provide the 3 ARBOs marketing outlets for their produce to encourage them to enhance their productivity, increase the income of their respective members and promote development of the province.

The PRDP is pursuing the projects, in partnership with the Zambales provincial government and the private sector, to ease the burden of the farmers, who badly needed marketing avenues for their harvests.

The projects are being implemented in conformity with the local government’s platform for a modern, climate-smart and market-oriented agri-fishery sector.

Under the project, the PRDP would provide the key infrastructure, facilities, technology, and information with the end in view of raising household income, productivity, and competitiveness of farmers and fisherfolks in the province.

Zambales Governor Hermogenes E. Ebdane Jr. lauded the PRDP and the DAR for taking into consideration the economic well-being of his farmer-constituents.

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