Gov’t support services available to Luisita beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines - More than 6,000 farm workers who qualified as agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Hacienda Luisita will be awarded parcels of land, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said yesterday.

The beneficiaries can also avail themselves of agricultural support services from government agencies to boost their productivity, he said.

De los Reyes said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) would embark on a massive information campaign to educate the ARBs in all the 10 barangays of Hacienda Luisita on how to avail themselves of government services to make their land productive.

The grassroots-based information campaign was launched yesterday in 10 barangays covering Hacienda Luisita, in coordination with the Department of Agriculture (DA), Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), National Dairy Authority, Land Bank of the Philippines, and Agricultural Training Institute.

DAR Undersecretary for Support Services Jerry Pacturan said representatives of these government agencies have agreed to meet with the Hacienda Luisita farm workers to explain their programs and projects that are available to ARBs.

On top of the list is the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services (ARCCESS), a project implemented by the DAR to help improve the household income of ARBs through their organizations, Pacturan said.

“The project seeks to strengthen the business operations or business units of agrarian reform beneficiary organizations so that they can eventually manage business assets or activities related to farm production, post-harvest, processing and marketing,” he said.

Pacturan said the Hacienda Luisita farm worker-beneficiaries are strongly encouraged to organize themselves into farming blocks to make ARCCESS more efficient and effective.

These would include professional services to assist them in implementing their agri-based enterprise; common service facilities or farm equipment that they will use as their business assets; access to credit and insurance facilities in partnership with the Landbank, Philippine Crop Insurance Commission and private financing institutions.

Pacturan said the ARBs in Hacienda Luisita may also pool their resources together to engage in diversified sugar block farming, a joint program of the DAR, DA and SRA that seeks the consolidation of support services for small sugar farms in order to obtain economies of scale.

The block farms, between 30 to 50 hectares each, will be managed as one farm so that the activities in the small individual farms are aligned and implemented according to the plans of the whole block.

In this way, resources, including farm workers, equipment, inputs, and financing, could be utilized efficiently.