Almost a million ARBs listed for DA support
Credit to Author: EIREENE JAIREE GOMEZ| Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2019 17:50:06 +0000
To ensure that government support is given to all Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) affected by Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Tariffication, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) had already submitted its official data to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Such data were transmitted to the DA so the ARBs will be included in the Registry System on Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), a nationwide database of farmers and fishers which serves as basis for some of the government’s support programs.
There are about 939,297 ARBs affected by the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law, DAR Undersecretary for Support Services Emily Padilla said during the agency’s budget hearing recently.
These ARBs or farmers, who were granted lands under Presidential Decree 27 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, are covering a total of 1,127,156 hectares of agricultural land, she added.
Padilla said there are 1,383 agrarian reform beneficiaries organization (ARBOs) for rice production with a total membership of 258,060.
An ARBO is a farmers’ cooperative composed of ARBs who voluntarily organize themselves for the purpose of pooling land, manpower, and technological, financial or other economic resources.
Under the law, RSBSA will serve as the official and legitimate list of the beneficiaries of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), a component of RA 11203 which aims to provide different forms of assistance to the country’s rice farmers such as the development of inbred rice seeds, the development of rice farm equipment and skills enhancement.
The DA, in consultation with farmers’ cooperatives and organizations, and local government units (LGUs) shall validate and update the existing RSBSA to ensure that those listed are legitimate farmers and farmworkers.
With the annual P10-billion RCEF, the DA through the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) will provide farmers with machinery and equipment worth P5 billion, free high-yielding seeds worth P3 billion from Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), P1 billion for credit and P1 billion in training through the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI).
Meanwhile, DAR Secretary John Castriciones said his department is in “close coordination” with the DA as they identify various government intervention for rice farmers affected by the new rice regime.
“What we are doing right now is that we are encouraging our agrarian reform beneficiaries to actvely involve themselves in the cooperatives or the ARBOs because it is difficult for us to help the farmers on a one-on-one basis considering that the farmers that we take into [consideration] are small farmers and new landowners who have just been given a partial of land ranging from 1.6 hectares to at least 3 hectares,” he explained.
“We have been providing them with technical training and support as to how they can be more productive and at the same time we give post harvest facilities so that it would be a lot easier for them to produce more,” Casrticiones added.
The Rice Tariffication Law, which was passed in February this year, removed restraints on the importation, export and trading of rice. Restraints on imports were replaced by tariffs.
Under the law, the country will apply a 35 percent tariff for rice shipments from Asean member states, 40 percent for in-quota or within minimum access volume (MAV) from non-Asean, and 180 percent for out-quota and non-Asean or as calculated by the Tariff Commission.