DAR Region 2 distributes Php17.6 million worth of farm machinery and equipment.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) provincial offices in the Cagayan Valley region (Region 2) have procured and distributed Php17.6 million worth of farm machinery and equipment (FME) consisting of tractors, combine harvesters, delivery trucks, etc., to nine (9) agrarian reform beneficiaries' organizations (ARBOs) in the different provinces in the region. The FME would help farmers modernize their operations and increase their yield resulting to increase in income.  

According to DAR region 2 Regional Director Primo C. Lara, the farm machineries and equipment for distribution to selected agrarian reform beneficiaries' organizations is being implemented under the Sustainable and Resilient Agrarian Reform Communities Project (SuRe ARCs), a DAR program for farm machines aimed to improve farm productivity and increase thehousehold income of ARBs through the ARBOs where they are a member.  

The turnover of the farm equipment was graced by the presence of Atty. Kazel Celeste, DAR Undersecretary for Field Operations (FOO) and Atty. Marjorie P. Ayson, DAR Assistant Secretary, FOO. The FME was distributed to the following ARBOs: Sunrise Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Garita Farmers Agriculture Cooperative, the Farmers of Luna Agriculture Cooperative, Villaverde Development Cooperative, Brgy. Paitan Farmers Irrigators Association, Inc., San Salvador ARB Association, Luttuad ARB Farmers Association, San Francisco ARB Farmers Association, Maui Farmers' Cooperative, Dicamay Farmers Agri Cooperative, Greenfield Cabatuan Agriculture Cooperative, Nam-Ay Farmers Association, Western Aurora Agri Cooperative, Upper Forest Region Agrarian Reform Cooperative, Reform Farm Workers Association, Sinili Vegetable Growers Cooperative, and Rotary Community Corps of Cauayan City Producers Cooperative. 

The SuRe ARCs is a program of the Department of Agrarian Reform that aims to support the agricultural sector and enhance food security. In addition to farm mechanization, the project is also establishing enterprise-based crop nurseries with greenhouse facilities and tissue culture laboratories in agrarian reform beneficiary organizations, state universities and colleges, and local government units within Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs).  

Turnover of farm machinery and equipment under DAR Project SuRe ARCs.  

DAR Usec Atty Kazel C. Celeste (left) and DAR Asec Atty Marjorie P. Ayson. 

Delivery truck for hauling of ARB agri products. 

Combine harvesters and tractors. 

Four-wheeled tractors for ARB coops. 

DARPO Cagayan-Batanes PARPO II Val M. Cristobal and staff.

Sunrise MPC officers and members - recipients of delivery truck. 

DAR Cagayan Valley 2019 ANNUAL REPORT

DAR allots P300-M to aid farmers during COVID19 pandemic

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has allotted PHP300 million to finance its ongoing project "The PaSSOver: ARBOld Move to Heal as One Deliverance of our ARBs from the Covid-19 Pandemic,” a project in response to the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act or Republic Act 11469, where the President Rodrigo Duterte directed all government agencies to provide, protect and promote the welfare of the people amid the COVID19 health crisis. Throughout the nation, there are thousands of CARP farmer-beneficiaries adversely affected by the COVID19 pandemic.

     Admittedly, the biggest and most important sector in the country affected by this crisis is the food service industry, the Philippines being a nation with a thriving agricultural backbone, the lockouts throughout Luzon (which later on expanded to some major provinces in Visayas and Mindanao) caused farmers and agricultural workers suddenly unable to produce, tend their farms, and market their products. It also resulted to laborers losing job opportunities resulting to massive loss of income.

     As the public were forced by the crisis to stay in their homes to protect themselves and their families, the local economy ground to a halt but expenses continue to pile up. Business establishments remain closed and some may never open up again. All of a sudden, the agri sector is experiencing the largest loss of income in human history due to the deadly and highly contagious COVID19 pandemic, putting a sudden stop to physical interactions and almost none on business transactions.

     According to DAR Secretary JohnR. Castriciones, the budget for the project will be taken from the realigned budget of the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development Sustainability Program (ARBDSP) and unobligated allotment from the different units of the DAR Support Services Office (SSO). The project aims to give essential support to ARBs for them to be able to perform their roles in ensuring food sufficiency in the country.

     The project intends to provide immediate and essential support services to men and women agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) to mitigate the impact of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) measures due to the pandemic and to address the demands affecting the agricultural sector even after the ECQ has been lifted or upon the start of the “new normal.”

The PaSSOver: ARBOld Move project will provide enable the ARBs, individually and collectively, to continue performing their roles as frontliners in ensuring food sufficiency for the nation. DAR is assisting the farmers in the distribution and delivery of agri products by issuing quarantine passes so they could pass through checkpoints in critical areas under ECQ.

     The Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organizations (ARBOs) will also be provided with farm inputs such as seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides, and farm tools to enable them to resume planting crops for continuous food supply. It will cover 7,000 hectares nationwide with 90,839 individual ARBs to benefit from the project. ARB identification cards (ARB IDs) are also being issued and distributed under the PaSSOver: ARBOld Move project. The ID cards are being given to identify ARBs and facilitate their access to the government's social amelioration programs (SAPs). As of April 24, a total of 77,119 ARB IDs have been distributed by the DAR.

     The project will also extend its support to 1,200 women ARBs nationwide by providing them with livelihood activities, especially in food production such as egg and poultry production, hog fattening, and similar activities based on their preferences and capabilities to ensure they have food on their tables and products to sell.

    According to DAR SSO Undersecretary Atty. Emily Padilla, “the project will also provide packages containing supplemental food, hygiene products and vitamins to ARB households. Each package will contain 4 kilos of rice, 4 canned sardines, 4 packs instant noodles, 2 pieces bath soap, 10 pieces face masks and a bottle of 50 pieces vitamin C. A total of 126,565 qualified ARBs will benefit from these packages. “Helping our ARBs will ensure that their agricultural production, livelihood and income will continue during this health crisis. It will also ensure sustained supply of adequate, affordable and safe food necessary for Filipino consumers even upon the 'new normal' will be implemented,"

     Meantime, in Cagayan province, the DAR Provincial Office personnel are presently going around different municipalities distributing initially the relief packs for agrarian reform farmer-beneficiaries, to be followed immediately with the distribution of farm inputs and livelihood kits, to help farmers get on and move on to the new normal. (Photos by: Mimi Atal-Mora)
CLICK PHOTOs to view: 

DAR-World Bank Project SPLIT to facilitate subdivision of collective to individual CLOAs for agrarian reform beneficiaries

Support to Parcelization of Lands to Individual Title (SPLIT), is a project that seeks to give farmer-beneficiaries covered under collective Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (cCLOA), the opportunity to have and own individual titles as evidence of ownership to the farmlot/s awarded to them under the agrarian reform program.

The recently approved Department of Agrarian Reform-World Bank (DAR-WB) SPLIT project is a loan package amounting to Php24 Billion which shall be used to subdivide the cCLOAs - about 1.38 million hectares, into individual land titles so that the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) may fully exercise their rights of ownership and possession over their landholding/s.

The issuance of CCLOAs has repercussion to the government as it could not collect taxes and amortization. The same can be said to many beneficiaries who are not engaged in collective farming. All these issues can be cured once these cCLOAs are split into individual titles, he said.

The project SPLIT also includes the acquisition for the DAR Provincial offices involved, of survey and other related equipment for the subdivision of each farm lot, four-wheel drive vehicles and motorcycles for the mobilization of DAR survey teams, including hiring of additional manpower. It also requires capability trainings due to advances in technology, such as on the use of new software/computer programs like the AutoCAD Google Earth (AGE) Mapping which is useful for the subdivision of individual land titles as it requires computing technical descriptions, conversion of coordinates, transporting KMZ files (used by Google Earth) to Andriod phones among others.

The DAR-WB SPLIT project is in response to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s order to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to conduct the survey and re-documentation of collective land titles to individual certificates of landownership awards (CLOAs). President Rodrigo R. Duterte requested the assistance of the World Bank in order to expedite the process of subdividing the lands covered by collective agrarian reform land titles.