Sugar planters seek 10-15-year moratorium on CARP

Sugar planters are asking government for a 10 to 15-year moratorium on the compulsory coverage of sugar lands under the comprehensive agrarian reform program or CARP.

In a position paper, the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) said such moratorium is needed to give government enough time to review the impact of CARP on the sugar industry.

The NFSP also wants government to introduce amendments in the land reform law that will exempt sugar lands from compulsory coverage under CARP.

NFSP executive vice president Enrique Rojas said there is an urgent need to review the land reform law insofar as its application to the sugar industry is concerned, in order to protect the industry and promote its development under a liberalized trade regime.

He said that while they do not negate the rights of landless farmers to own lands nor those of farmworkers to have just share of the fruits, the Constitution also mandates that certain developmental and other considerations be taken into account in land reform.

The NFSP noted that compulsory coverage of sugar lands under land reform is a backward step in the country's effort to stabilize the sugar industry and a major liability in attaining its goal of agricultural self-sufficiency and food security. "Land reform is the biggest threat to the stability of the sugar industry," it said.

It added that to be an efficient sugar producer and thereby be able to compete with other sugar-producing countries in the global market, one has to have economies of scale. "But sugar is not suited to small-scale production. Mechanizing a sugar farm requires an area of no less than 50 hectares. Integrated farming is the rule rather than the exception in the world's most efficient sugar producers like Australia, South Africa, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia," the NFSP explained.

It said that while small-scale farming is suited to vegetable and fruit cultivation, this will definitely not apply to the production of sugar which requires special processing facilities, marketing and distribution networks.

"It is therefore unrealistic for us to aspire to compete with our more productive neighboring countries in the cost-effective production of sugar if we cannot put together hundreds of hectares of land to undertake integrated sugar production," the sugar farmers said.