1,000 Negros farmers given land and credit

DAR Undersecretary Jerry Pacturan. pia.gov.ph photo

MANILA, Philippines—More than 1,000 farmers in Negros Occidental on Wednesday finally received their certificates of land ownership award plus a “bonus” of nearly P30 million in credit assistance, the Department of Agrarian Reform announced Thursday.

Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Jerry Pacturan said each of the 1,134 new landowners received an average of 1.28 hectares of farm lots out of 1,453 hectares symbolically distributed during an awarding ceremony in Bacolod City.

Pacturan said that the P26.85 million in credit assistance comes with a free crop insurance package to spare them additional hardship in case of crop damage or losses resulting from natural calamities.

The insurance package also includes P50,000 insurance coverage for death or accident.

“Now that you have farm lots to till, easy access to credit and insurance protection for you and each member of your families, we, in the DAR, hope that you will make the most out of these blessings by maximizing the potential of your newly awarded farm lots,” a press statement quoted Pacturan as telling the beneficiaries.

The P26.85-million credit assistance extended to the ARBOs in the north of the province is the latest form of support service extended by DAR  under its “P1-billion Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP).”

Pacturan said the APCP was in line with the Aquino administration’s effort to revitalize the country’s agriculture, and in response to strong clamor from agrarian reform beneficiaries to be given easy access to credit assistance for farm inputs.

Dealing directly with the ARBOs, Pacturan said, was the new tack of the government in the delivery of support services under the Agrarian Reform Communities Connectivity and Economic Support Services (ARCCESS).

“Our focus in ARCCESS is on developing the ARBOs into viable agribusiness entrepreneurs, whose success would have a direct impact on the communities,” he said.