A Study was conducted and it showed among others that the the Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) approach to rural development is an effective strategy to fight poverty in the countryside. The study is part of the second round of CARP impact
assessment studies commissioned by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). It
aimed to assess the impact and gains of the program and to recommend policies,
mechanisms or changes to enhance program implementation, particularly for the
remaining balances in land acquisition and distribution and in expanding the
reach and impact of the Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) strategy.
The study
mainly used official government databases of census and surveys of the National
Statistics Office (NSO), the ARC database of the Bureau of Agrarian Reform
Beneficiaries Development (BARBD) of DAR, and other administrative data from
the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) and National Statistics
Coordination Board (NSCB). These databases were merged with the data on the
2006 Masterlist of the Agrarian Reform Communities, matched and analyzed.
A
rapid appraisal of five provinces was also done to examine the impact of
government interventions on land markets and economic activities related to
land (i.e., credit, capital accumulation, and land productivity). Results of
the study show that it is the combination of possessing the land, being located
in an ARC, and being in an ARC that increases a farmer household’s income and
expenditure per capita and make them less likely to be poor.
Within an ARC,
there is no significant difference between ARBs and non-ARBs, thus
demonstrating that returns to land ownership is significantly improved with the
provision of support services.
Furthermore, ARBs do better than non-ARBs in ARCs
but both ARBs and non-ARBs in non-ARCs would have the same probability of being
non-poor and they do worse than the respondents in ARCs. The benefit-cost
analysis of the ARC strategy yielded a positive net present value showing that
the benefits reaped from the ARC support services outweigh the cost of
financing such services.
Through the ARC
strategy, poverty incidence decreased from 39.8% to 24.2% over the period 1990
and 2000. This reduction is slightly higher than that experienced by those in
the non-ARC barangays, i.e., from 39.0% to 24.8% for the same period.
SOURCE: Balisacan, Arsenio, M. et al. Study on the Impact of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) on Poverty Reduction and Prospects for Long-Term Growth. Asia-Pacific Policy Center, Diliman, Quezon City. October 2007. PUBLISHED BY: Economic and Socio-Cultural Research Division
Policy and Strategic
Research Service, DEPARTMENT OF AGRARIAN
REFORM
