DAR showcases farmer success stories

MANILA, Philippines - For as long as he can remember, 60-year old Alfredo Malunes has been tilling the rice fields in the remote town of Sopronio Española in Palawan. Having attended only a few years of primary education, he is among the hundreds of thousands of peasants uncertain of what farming has in store for the future of his family.

Today, he is among the millions of beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) who has acquired new skills to boost his income. He is now part of the Labog Agri-based Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Palawan and recipient of a Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) training and livelihood development program.

The program dubbed the “Rainmaker Bamboo Craft” was implemented in 2003 with the support of the Asian Development Bank to produce bamboo rainmakers for tourists.

Made up of natural materials, rainmakers produce a relaxing sound of raindrops and have become an indigenous musical instrument sought after by tourists as souvenirs. This venture provided additional monthly income to the cooperative members enabling them to support their other livelihood activities.

Malunes is just among the success stories in the 8th Agraryo Trade Fair spearheaded by DAR’s Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development.

With the theme “Enterprising Agrarian Reform Communities: Creating Jobs, Empowering Farmers and Ensuring Food Security,” the event marks the extension by Congress of the government’s land reform program which marked its 20^th year in 2008.

Enacted in 1988 as the centerpiece program of the Aquino administration, CARP is a social justice program designed to ensure equal access to wealth and basic social services.

According to Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, DAR has distributed 4 million hectares of farm lands to some 2.3 million farmers in more than two decades of implementation. They comprise some 2,000 agrarian reform communities (ARCs), the core recipients of CARP’s economic programs.

Among the other noteworthy ARC projects are citrus nectar trading of Payapa, Landing and Bamban (Palaban ARC) in Tagkawayan, Quezon; the cassava food processing of Villas ABCs ARC in Alabat, Quezon; banana chips making of the Estemarconbaga ARC in Amulung, Cagayan, the Alima Peanut Cookies of Cabatuan, Isabela; organic rice farming of the Uddiawan Cluster ARC in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, and pineapple jam processing of Davao Ventures Corporation Employees ARB Cooperative in Davao City

For non-food items, there is the sinamay fabric weaving of Maunlad ARC in Aklan; the Vakul Ivatan Head Gear production of Batanes,

Pangandaman revealed that with the interventions provided by DAR, independent impact studies on the CARP showed the rise in the income and productivity of farmers especially in the ARCs. He added that from mere recipients of government aid, a new breed of empowered, reliable, and progressive owner-cultivators has emerged from the program.

Agraryo Trade Fair is held in partnership with the ARB Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Development Program (AREDP), Philippine Fruit and Vegetables Industries, and supported by San Miguel Corporation, Purefoods and SM Megamall, the Bureau of Agricultural Research, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Tourism, the Department of Trade and Industry, Land Bank of the Philippines and the National Historical Institute.