NEDA eyes policy change to allow commercial farming

MANILA, Philippines – Policy reforms would be implemented in land administration to pave the way for large scale commercial farming which is deemed productive and profitable for farmers, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said yesterday.

Improving the productivity of the agricultural sector is seen to give the economy a significant boost and contribute greatly to the reduction of poverty in the regions.

“We are revisiting policies on agriculture and rural development which has lagged behind amid consistent economic growth,” said Pernia, also the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

The economic growth of seven percent in the second quarter could have been higher had it not been for the negative growth of 0.2 percent registered by the agriculture sector.

Pernia said the agriculture sector would continue to fall behind in productivity  as long as small parcels of land awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries are not consolidated into plantation-size cultivation areas that can achieve economies of scale.

“One of the measures that we are trying to introduce in the agriculture sector is to consolidate lands. The agrarian reform has resulted in  small lots which are not economically productive,” Pernia said. “We need economies of scale to produce enough rice and other crops. So land administration is going to be improved; titling would be done on untitled lots so these would be easier to consolidate he said.”

Several high value and staple crops used in the country are plantation crops or those that have huge export potential if cultivated on large tracts of land is it lowers the cost of production per unit. Such crops include but are not limited to rice, sugarcane, coconut, coffee, bananas and rubber.

Pernia said consolidating small agricultural plots would attract more investors that have the financial and technical muscle to employ modern machinery and farming technology to attain greater productivity.

“If there is consolidation, there would be some investors coming in to make the farming enterprise more productive. They can employ modern machineries and large scale irrigation systems. We will make use of machineries, not carabaos,” he said.

Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan has repeatedly stressed the need for the country to pursue more agriculture activities at a large scale.