Gov’t to help Luisita farmers boost production

MANILA, Philippines—Farm workers who are poised to receive parcels of land from the Hacienda Luisita sugar estate may avail themselves of support services from government agencies to boost their productivity, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said Thursday.

The DAR announced it was embarking on a massive information campaign to educate agrarian reform beneficiaries in all 10 barangays of Hacienda Luisita on how they could make use of government services to make their land productive.

The campaign will be conducted from May 23 to 25 in coordination with the Department of Agriculture (DA), Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), National Dairy Authority, Land Bank of the Philippines and Agricultural Training Institute.

Agrarian Reform Undersecretary for Support Services Jerry Pacturan said representatives of the government agencies agreed to meet with the Hacienda Luisita farm workers to explain the programs and projects that are available to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

Household incomes

On top of the list is the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services (ARCCESS), a project implemented by the DAR to help improve the household income of ARBs through their organizations.

Specifically, the project seeks to strengthen the business operations or business units of agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (ARBOs) so they can eventually manage business assets or activities related to farm production, post-harvest, processing and marketing.

Pacturan noted that the Hacienda Luisita farm worker-beneficiaries were strongly encouraged to organize themselves into farming blocks to make ARCCESS support services more efficient and effective.

These services include: Professional services to assist them in implementing their agri-based enterprise, which include agri-extension and business development (organizational, financial and enterprise management); common service facilities (CSF) or farm equipment, which they will use as their business asset; access to credit and insurance facilities in partnership with the Land Bank, Philippine Crop Insurance Commission and private financing institutions.

Diversified farming

Pacturan said the agrarian reform beneficiaries at Hacienda Luisita may also pool their resources to engage in diversified sugar block farming, a joint-program of the DAR, DA and SRA that seeks the consolidation of support services for small sugar farms in order to obtain economies of scale.

The block farms, between 30 to 50 hectares each, will be managed as one farm so that the activities in the small individual farms are aligned and implemented according to the plans of the whole block. This way, resources including farm workers, equipment, inputs and financing could be utilized efficiently, he said.