Sen. Cynthia Villar
SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ—The conversion of farmlands for housing, factories and other business ventures should not worry farmers because food productivity does not require vast tracts of land anymore, according to Sen. Cynthia Villar. “Let’s not worry about land conversion. They mean progress,” Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, said on the sidelines of a program celebrating the 24th anniversary of the Philippine Carabao Center here on Tuesday. “Farmers do not need to have big tracts of land to be very productive. What they need are technologies, [to be taught] how to compute to know how much they are making for their
labor, how to apply for loans, and to empower them for their own benefit,” she said. Villar said she would file a resolution that would require agencies handling food production to apprise Congress how they have been enforcing farmer-protection programs. —ANSELMO ROQUE