Morales: ARC projects to help ease economic crisis

Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio Morales Jr. is confident that the government’s sustainable rural development program would help ease the impact of the present economic crisis besetting the country.

Morales said the program, which focuses on establishing agrarian reform communities (ARCs) in land-reformed barangays, has the potential of reducing the high incidence of rural poverty by 50 percent.

"It was evident in the past two years when these government initiatives have helped spur agricultural growth, keeping food prices within the affordable level and the inflation rate at single digit," Morales told delegates to the 16th Technical Committee Meeting of the Center for Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) in Antipolo City recently.

CIRDAP is a regional, inter-governmental and autonomous institution whose main concern is to alleviate rural poverty in the Asia-Pacific region by assisting national action and encouraging regional cooperation and promoting integrated rural development among its 13 member-countries through research, training and information dissemination.

Besides the Philippines, other member-countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Established in July 1979 at the initiative of Asia-Pacific countries and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, with support from other concerned UN bodies and donors, the CIRDAP gives priority to agrarian, institutional/infrastructure and resource development, including human resources and employment.

Morales said most of CIRDAP’s international donors have recognized the potential of the Philippines’ new initiatives on integrated rural development.

"They (CIRDAP’s foreign donors) have provided new money for DAR’s program on the development of agrarian reform beneficiaries aimed at building self-reliant and sustainable rural communities," Morales said.

He said some P20-billion overseas development assistance (ODA) has been generated in the past two years, and foreign donor-countries are pledging more support, indicating their confidence in the government’s capacity to carry out its mission of helping ARCs attain self-sustenance.

Some 1,200 ARCs have been established nationwide. The Department of Agrarian Reform intends to increase the number to 2,000 by 2004.