Land reform beneficiaries get tractors

BACOLOD CITY—The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has given P46.2-million assistance to 12 agrarian reform beneficiary (ARB) groups in Negros Occidental to help them sustain the productivity and viability of their sugar lands.

Undersecretary Jerry Pacturan of the DAR Support Services on Wednesday said the DAR would provide the ARB one tractor each costing P2.85-million or a total of cost of P34.2 million.

Pacturan said the ARBs are also required to spend at least 15 percent of the acquisition cost of each tractor for the improvement of their operations, such as the construction of farm sheds and the purchase of farm needs.

“The tractor is a grant from the government and a business asset that they can use for their productivity improvement and for building their organization,” he said.

Pacturan added that each ARB would also get P1 million cash to be used for capacity development of each organization.

This would be on top of P1 billion at the Land Bank of the Philippines available to ARBs for production loans, Pacturan added.

The DAR, along with the Sugar Regulatory Administration, is encouraging agrarian reform beneficiaries to engage in block farming to lower their production costs to survive beyond 2015 when tariffs on imported sugar would be lifted, Pacturan said.

Each ARB group has 50 or more members covering more than 50 hectares, he said.

The DAR would be providing a package of support services to ARBs to ensure that they survive immediately after they are awarded their share of the land, Pacturan said.