BAGUIO CITY – At least 105,000 indigent farmers in the Cordillera were awarded alienable and disposable lands for them to till and be a source of their livelihood.
Franklin E. Cocoy, regional director of the Cordillera office of the Department of Agrarian Reform, said the agency o distributed 89,000 hectares of land to the 105,000 farmers in the 85 agrarian reform communities in the region.
“We are about to meet our target of 105,000 hectares of lands to be distributed to our farmers in the identified agrarian reform communities regionwide. By the time that the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) will end in 2014, we will be able to distribute the balance to the more than 20,000 farmer-beneficiaries,” Cocoy said, adding out of the remaining 16,000 hectares undistributed, 8,000 hectares will be distributed on time while the remaining 8,000 are described as problematic because of alleged boundary disputes and overlapping claims among others.
According to him, each landless farmer got an average of 0.8 hectare which they are now tilling to produce food for their families while their excess production of rice and other agricultural crops are sold to the market.
Aside from getting the land that they can call their own, Cocoy said the agency was also instrumental in providing the agrarian reform communities the appropriate infrastructure like farm to market roads, irrigation as well as post-harvest facilities that helped them sustain their productivity.
“After our land distribution mandate will expire, we will concentrate in providing our farmer-beneficiaries with the appropriate support services that will help improve their productivity which will be beneficial in allowing them to earn more income for their families,” Cocoy added.
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law mandates that landless farmers must given at least 3 hectares of land which they could till to earn a living and to help improve food security, especially in identified agrarian reform communities.
However, Cocoy disclosed the rules regarding the land area to given out to farmers in the region was relaxed, because of the topography of the land, thus, each farmer is entitled to get a maximum of 0.8 hectare.
“We have to be aggressive this time so that we will be able to meet our targets by 2014. What we are concerned now is the identified problematic lands because the farmers might not get their lands on time if the issues and concerns will not be immediately settled by the concerned agencies, local governments and the beneficiaries,” the DAR-CAR official said.
Cocoy said land distribution in Mountain Province, Abra and Benguet is expected to be completed by the end of this year while land distribution in Ifugao, Kalinga and Apayao will be completed before 2014.
By the end of 2012, he said at least 1,200 hectares will be given out to the beneficiaries in the agrarian reform communities in order to move closer in meeting their targets before the expiration of the extended CARP.
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