1.2 M hectares of Caraga lands remain idle

BUTUAN CITY — Nearly two-thirds or about 1.2 million hectares of the total land area of the Caraga region of about 1.9 million hectares are still idle public lands, Caraga Regional Development Council Vice-Chairman for Trade and Industry and DTI Regional Director Brielgo Pagaran said.

Caraga Region has three cities (Butuan, Surigao and Bislig in Surigao del Sur) four provinces, 71 municipalities with 1,326 barangays and a total population of nearly two million.

Ten years ago, Pagaran warned different local government units and the national government that without productive use of the huge idle public lands, Caraga Region’s economic development remains stagnant.

Pagaran’s prediction ten years ago proved true according to NSO surveys and NEDA statistics, Caraga Region now being the country’s poorest region.

Pagaran, in an exclusive interview with The STAR, said that while neighboring ASEAN countries has a high annual production yield per hectare of land, Philippine lands per hectare is only giving a yield of about P11,000 gross per annum to farmers.

China has an average of about P56,000 gross annual yield per hectares while Taiwan has about an average of P87,000 gross annual yield per hectare.

"This is because unlike the Philippines, these countries maximize productivity of their agricultural lands by planting high yield crops with the government directly supporting the farmers," Pagaran said.

While the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office claimed success in land distribution through its "Handog Titulo Program," Pagaran claimed that the beneficiaries’ capabilities to make the lands productive is wanting.

Ten years ago, he said, the DENR launched many land productivity  programs in the region such as Communal Social Forestry (CSF), Integrated Social Forestry (ISF), Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) apart from the traditional Timber License Agreement (TLA) program envisioned to make public lands productive.

"But where is the result? Does it provide employment to thousands of unemployed in the region?" Pagaran asked.

Accordingly, Caraga Region has the lowest gross yield per annum in land use and productivity among 16 regions in the country today.

"I think it is about time policy makers in our country should re-engineer land ownership that will spur economic activity and development," he said.