HR Bill okeys funding for DAR and DA to insure ARBs under PCIC

The House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee has approved the provision for funding of a full insurance coverage for all qualified Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Under the Bill, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) are required to include in their agencies’ programs the operational requirements for the implementation of the ARB insurance program. The House Committee on Agrarian Reform has already endorsed the Bill for plenary approval.

The ARB insurance intends to provide crop insurance protection covering about 224,000  ARBs or members of their farming households involving some 330,000 hectares of agricultural land  and raising some 30,700 farm animals. The bill would provide ARBs with the insurance protection against compensable losses arising from natural calamities, plant diseases, and pest infestations of their crops and those affecting their livestock and farm machineries.

Specifically, compensable losses from which ARBs are insured include natural calamities such as typhoon, flood, drought, earthquake, volcanic eruption, frost, and other destructive natural phenomena such as heat and hot wind. These also include plant diseases caused by pathogens, bacteria, fungi, viruses, virus-like pathogens and other similar foreign bodies, pest infestations caused by nematodes, insects, mites and spiders, millipedes and centipedes, symphylans, slugs and snails, among others, and loss of life and/or injury to the qualified ARB from accident or any other causes.

The insurance shall cover crops such as: palay; corn; sugarcane; high-value crops as defined in Section 4 (b) of RA No. 9700, otherwise known as the “High-Value Crops Development Act of 1995.” Also covered are coconut; tobacco; aquaculture; livestock; and non-crop agricultural assets.

The Bill would complement the already existing agricultural insurance for ARBs presently participating in the agrarian reform production credit program (APCP) and the credit assistance programs for program beneficiaries development in the financing programs implemented by the DA, DAR, Land Bank which cover all the regular insurance as implemented by the PCIC.

Insured ARB in Solana, Cagayan receives indemnification from typhoon damage in Solana, Cagayan.

Three Cagayan Valley towns into Sugarcane Block Farming

Planning workshop of DAR and ARB
coops for block sugar faming

The Sugarcane Block Farming project is currently being implemented by the Department of Agrarian Reform provincial office of Cagayan wherein small farms owned by agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in sugar-producing areas are being consolidated to increase the ARBs’ profitability through ‘block’ farming. Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II (PARPO II) Virgilio M. Acasili said the implementation of the project is pursuant to the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed between and among the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Under the MOA, the DAR will shoulder the cost of farm tractors and business development services. The DA will cover the development of irrigation facilities and the improvement of farm-to-mill roads while the SRA will shoulder the cost of agri-technology and overall management of the block farms.

At least two (2) municipalities in Cagayan province are preparing to engage in sugarcane block farming to increase profitability and  also a way of preparing our ARB-sugar farmers against the effects of competition resulting from the implementation of the free trade agreement within the ASEAN region by 2015,  when the tariffs on agricultural goods can be as low as five percent to even zero.

The demand for sugar is continuously rising due to the increasing requirements for production of bioethanol (from sugar) and in power cogeneration which uses sugarcane waste called bagasse. Presently, energy companies are allowed to import bioethanol to supply their needs as local production cannot meet the current demand. Bioethanol made from sugarcane consumes the least amount of energy and emits the least amount of greenhouse gas, which means it is one of the most earth-friendly power sources.

The local sugar industry’s biggest competition is the entry of cheaper sugar from Thailand and is considered as a real threat that can affect local production and pull down domestic prices to the prejudice of local farmers. Sugar from the Philippines is still being exported with the United States as its major market. According to the SRA, sugar exports will soon include India, Korea, Indonesia and the Middle East.

Sugarcane block farming will happen in the municipalities of Solana and Tuao, all in the south-western part of Cagayan province where large tracks of lands are planted to sugarcane that provide the raw materials for the Cagayan RobinaSugar Milling Company (CARSUMCO) in Sto. Domingo, Piat, Cagayan. Also included in the project is Cabagan town in Isabela province. 

Under the block farming system, small farms of agrarian reform beneficiaries with areas of less than 10 hectares will be consolidated and integrated into 30-50 hectares through various schemes such as contracting, joint venture, partnership and sharing.

The block farms will be managed as one farm so that activities in the small individual farms are synchronized to the plans of the whole block, Hence, resources including farm workers, equipment and financing, could be utilized more efficiently. Although the farms are operated as a block, the ARB remains as the absolute owner of their farm, they will not lose ownership of their land titles. The block farms will be managed by their farmers’ organizations or cooperatives who will be assisted by a farm manager hired and supervised by the SRA.

Block farming is the consolidation of small farms to help increase productivity and to widen the scale of sugar production. ARBs are encouraged to organize themselves into cooperatives to make their farm operations more cost-efficient which will result to lesser cost of production resulting to more profitable per unit area. It is a support services program intended for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) beneficiaries.

The government is targeting to have at least 100 sugarcane block farm sites by 2015. The average sugar cane yield per hectare is currently at 60 tons but this can be increased to 70-80 tons per hectare through farm mechanization and improved production process.

Under the block farming system, DAR provides all that the farmers will need such as farm inputs, new farm techniques and common service facilities that consists of a mechanized tractors and a hauling trucks, etc.  These inputs and farm equipment will  be provided as grants to the farmers’ cooperatives being the conduit between DAR, etc and the farmer-beneficiaries who are parties to the project.

           According to studies conducted by SRA, the program can help increase their sugar cane production from 99 to 147 bags of sugar per hectare, which could be translated to a possible increase in income of about P39, 000 for the farmer-beneficiaries. /cds 

DAR, CSU and LGUs to prime up Cagayan agribiz through ARC clusters

TUGUEGARAO CITY. The Department of Agrarian Reform Provincial Office of Cagayan-Batanes (DARPO Cagayan-Batanes), in a meeting with the Cagayan State University, Tuguegarao campus, together with officials from the local government units of Tuguegarao, Iguig, Penablanca, Piat, Amulung, Solana, Tuao and Enrile held on November 15, 2013 disclosed a plan to create agrarian reform community clusters and that they have agreed and actually started to develop an integrated agribusiness plan to serve as a matrix of the rural enterprises to be undertaken in the ARC cluster.

An ARC cluster is composed of two or more agrarian reform communities (ARCs) who have banded together to share resources, to work together to attain economies of scale and to expand their business operations that will include other municipalities.

The ARC Cluster shall be promoted as the convergence point of all government program implemented by government agencies such that each program and project is complimentary and supportive to each other. The strategy shall adopt a more comprehensive and integrated approach to rural development through collaborative efforts by all stake holders and partners. The bottom line objective is to improve productivity and income of the farmers by focusing agribusiness development of agro-industrial crops and to create economies of scale and active, harmonious and peaceful communities. Another aim of this strategy is to widen the impact area that the ARC Program has started. It is intended to concretely operationalize partnership and convergence of development interventions in the rural areas not only in ARCs but to include the Non-ARC communities. 

The Program  shall adopt a more comprehensive approach which is multi-disciplinary in character, and would try to integrate the spatial and physical development with the economic, social and institutional aspects for a given geographic area.

The Cagayan South ARC Cluster will take the lead in the implementation of the plan. The Cagayan South ARC Cluster is composed of agrarian reform communities in Tuguegarao City and in the municipalities of Piat, Amulung (West), Solana, Tuao and Enrile. The cluster has been created under the industry-based category and will be a major player in the grains and sugarcane industry.

The World Bank shall compliment DAR’s efforts in priming up the agribusinesses of the ARC cluster through funding from the World Bank-GROWTH project. The parties have committed to work together to prepare and eventually submit an integrated agribusiness plan for the Cluster ARC.

The Cagayan State University (CSU) through its College of Business, Entrepreneurship and Accountancy shall undertake to equip the members and officers of the key agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) with skills and capabilities to manage and operate the various agribusiness enterprises of their organizations. Photos by: Aldwin Addun

Amulung farmers receive indemnity thru Agri Insurance Program

AMULUNG, CAGAYAN, October 10, 2013-The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the PhilippineCrop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) distributed crop loss indemnity checks in favor of 161 affected agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who have availed of the DAR-PCIC Agrarian Reform Beneficiary-Agricultural Insurance Program (ARB-AIP) in Amulung, Cagayan, Cagayan province.

According to Virgilio M. Acasili, Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO) of Cagayan-Batanes offices (DARPO-Batanes has been annexed to DARPO-Cagayan), they distributed crop loss indemnity checks for Amulung town with a total amount of Php1,451,843.00 in favor of the 161 agrarian reform farmer-beneficiaries whose corn crops were destroyed by the recent drought. Also present during the distribution of crop loss indemnity checks were Atty. Marjorie P. Ayson, DAR Regional Director, Atty. Nicanor de Leon, Mayor of Amulung and other LGU officials who assisted the PCIC staff during the activity.

Crop loss indemnity payments were also made earlier to farmers in the municipalities of Alcala, Gattaran, Lasam, Solana, Sto. Nino and Tuao.

In Cagayan province, some 718.98 hectares of corn cultivated by 449 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) were destroyed by the recent draught, which prompted the payment of indemnity amounting to Php5,354,721.97 for the whole province.

The ARB-AIP is a P17.1 billion crop insurance coverage plan nationwide between the DAR and PCIC, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), wherein the DAR provides a premium subsidy worth P1 billion.

The insurance program benefits agrarian reform beneficiaries who are members of agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (ARBOs). It provides protection for over 224,000 enrolled ARBs and members of their households who are farming around 330,000 hectares of land and raising approximately 30,700 farm animals.

It is a safety net for ARBs against losses caused by crop pests, diseases, losses from damage of farm machineries  and also from the devastating unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change.

In addition, an ARB covered under the program shall receive protection against loss of life or limbs under an Accident and Dismemberment Security Scheme.  /christiandsales

DAR-Cagayan (North) holds regular Legal Clinic in the barangays

The Department of AgrarianReform–Cagayan (DARPO-Cagayan), Legal Assistance Division has adopted another effective strategy in bringing its services to where it is needed most by conducting a scheduled legal clinic in faraway barangays throughout the province.

This is accomplished by a team from the DARPO Legal Division going to a certain barangay in a municipality coordinated with the DAR Municipal Agrarian Reform Office (DARMO). Upon arrival, simultaneous activities such as lectures, legal counselling and mediation groups attend to specific needs of the farmers. If the parties in a case requiring mediation are present, a mediation conference is instantly conducted by assigned legal officers which usually ends up with an amicable settlement.

According to Atty. Fatima Yadao, Chief of the Legal Division of DARPO-Cagayan, many agrarian disputes have been resolved on site, i.e., farmers do not have to travel to its office at the DARPO in Tuguegarao for the resolution of issues affecting landowner-tenant relationship and other agrarian disputes.

           The onsite legal forum also includes lectures and discussions about agrarian laws. An open forum elicits questions from farmers, landowners, farm workers and local officials (barangay and municipal officials) and other CARP stakeholders usually resolves issues that would have concluded in protracted and expensive litigations. Matters requiring more serious consideration are scheduled for resolution at the DARPO if warranted. 
/christiandsales

More photos: https://www.facebook.com/amarophil.cagayan/media_set?set=a.481467975261750.1073741849.100001956556263&type=3