THE cumulative accomplishment of the government’s land-distribution program from 1972 to 2017 reached 4.77 million hectares, or nearly 88 percent of the target area of 5.425 million hectares, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In its latest report titled, “Redistribution of Land,” the PSA noted that land distributed by the government benefitted a total of 2.841 million farmers.
“Among regions, the biggest accomplishment in land distribution was achieved in Ilocos region at 99.3 percent of the region’s working scope,” the report read.
“Other regions with high accomplishment rates in land distribution ranging from 94.04 percent to 96.9 percent were recorded in the Cordillera Administrative Region [CAR], Central Luzon, Mimaropa, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao region and
Soccsksargen,” it added.
The PSA observed the least achievement in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) at 66.59 percent of the region’s target farm area for distribution.
“The number of farmer-beneficiaries from 1972 to 2017 summed up to 2.84 million. The majority of the farmer-beneficiaries were reported in Western Visayas at 319,175, accounting for 11.23 percent of the national count of agrarian reform beneficiaries [ARBs],” the report read.
In contrast, the PSA said CAR and ARMM had the least number of ARBs at 81,600 and 70,561, respectively. Each accounted for less than 3.0 percent of the national count of farmer-beneficiaries.
Last year, the PSA said a total of 28,403 hectares of agricultural lands were awarded to qualified farmers nationwide. This represents an annual accomplishment rate of 0.52 percent of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program’s (CARP) national target area for distribution.
“At the regional level, the highest accomplishment rate in 2017 was recorded in Soccsksargen at 1.32 percent of the region’s target, covering 9,640 hectares of distributed agricultural lands to farmer-beneficiaries,” the report read.
“Accomplishment rates of 0.48 percent to 0.67 percent were reported in Central Luzon, Bicol region and Northern Mindanao with corresponding distributed agricultural land areas of more than 2,000 hectares each. Meanwhile, the least accomplishment with only 1 hectare covered for land distribution was noted in ARMM,” it added.
The PSA said the year-on-year rate of accomplishment of the program in terms of land distributed and number of farmer-beneficiaries denotes the rate of transfer of arable land to the ownership of qualified farmer-beneficiaries.
It noted that this can serve as an indicator of the results of the government’s efforts to improve the quality of life of the farmers and promote agriculture and rural development.
The government through the Department of Agrarian Reform started the implementation of the CARP in 1972.