Sometime in the year 2013, the Department ofAgrarian Reform (DAR) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) through the SugarRegulatory Authority (SRA) started the Sugarcane Block Farms project, with
nineteen (19) pilot sites most of which are in Negros Occidental. As a
consequence thereof, it was shown that the pilot sites posted an average
increase of 29 percent in farm productivity for the crop year
2013-2014 after a year of operation. It was also established that the block
farms had an average increase from 50.78 tons cane per hectare (TC/Ha) to 65.29
TC/Ha during the period. All the pilot block farms showed increases in
productivity ranging from 7.47 percent to 100 percent after receiving
capacity-building, technical assistance, farm planning, and farm management
support from SRA.
The Sugarcane Block Farm in Cadiz City, Negros
Occidental, specially, the Hacienda Bernardita Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries
Multi-Purpose Cooperative experienced a 7.47 percent increase in production, from
its traditional production of 77 TC/Ha to 82.75 TC/Ha. A similar experience was
also posted by the North Cluster Producers Cooperative in Paniqui, Tarlac which involved
a 100 percent increase in productivity from 50 TC/Ha to 100 TC/Ha.
Consequently, the average 29 percent increase in productivity resulted to an average
increase of the agrarian reform beneficiaries’ (ARBs) income by P39,815 per
hectare, at 1.96 Lkg per TC.
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| The SBF project includes trainings on Sugarcane high-yeild varieties production and management. |
In Cagayan province, Sugarcane Block Farms started
in 2016-2017 through the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic
Support Services (ARCCESS) project covering the Bugnay Farmers Marketing
Cooperative in Tuao, Cagayan and the Mabuhay Agri-Crops MPC in Piat, Cagayan. The 2017-2018 FBS
project included the Bantay Farmers Producers Cooperative in Solana, Cagayan
and Pinoy Bagong Pagasa Marketing Cooperative in Tuao, Cagayan. For the
2018-2019 SBF projects, the ARBOs to be enrolled are Roma Sur MPC in Enrile, Cagayan
and Villarey ARB Cooperative in Piat, Cagayan.
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| Cagayan SBF ARBOs enrolled under the SBF project are provided farm machines to ensure the sustainability of the project. |
The DAR-DA/SRA Sugarcane Block Farms (SBF) project
involves the consolidation of the management of small farms of less than five
hectares, into a bigger but contiguous unit of at least 30 hectares for purposes
of improving farm productivity while individual ownership by the ARB is
maintained.
Information gathered from SRA shows that about 85
percent of sugarcane farms in the country have areas below five hectares due the widespread coverage of agri lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program (CARP), subdivision of lands by inheritance, sale, etc.
Sugarcane is a plantation crop and its
cost-efficiency ratio is achieved with large farm sizes such as 30 hectares and
above, small sugarcane farmers cannot avail of the benefits of economies of
scale, such as reduced prices of inputs for bulk purchases, etc. The present
ARB-land owners also do not have the capability to provide the needed farm
inputs resulting to lower production, it is also aggravated by the lower price offered by millers except for large volume transactions.
The Sugarcane Block Farms project aims to
consolidated small sugarcane farms into larger agribusiness ventures, improved farm
management and mechanized farming by the ARB’s through provision of essential technical,
financial, production and marketing support services under the project. At the end of their enrollment under the SBF project, these
ARBOs shall be able to operate the sugarcane block farms as a business and
become a major industry player through economies of scale.
