Negros farmers receive land titles

MANILA, Philippines — More than 100 farmers in Murcia town, Negros Occidental were recently awarded land titles covering 27 hectares of property as part of the implementation of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, the Deparment of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said yesterday.

The distributed property was located in Barangay Pandanon and acquired from its owner through the land acquisition and distribution process.

“The program was part of the DAR’s mandate to distribute to qualified tenants, farmers, farmworkers and other tillers all public and private agricultural landholdings acquired by the government,” Western Visayas regional director Shiela Enciso said.

The beneficiaries were given certificates of land ownership award.

Meanwhile, the DAR turned over a solar-powered irrigation system to farmer-members of the Ugnayang Lakas ng Dariao Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Catanduanes.

The facility, located in Barangay Dariao in Caramoran town, is capable of irrigating up to 5,000 square meters of farmlands, especially during the dry season.

The project includes a 12-unit solar panel module that can drive submersible pumps to deposit water to two 2,000-liter storage tanks.

Aside from ensuring irrigation supply, the facility can also provide the water needs of about 350 households in the area, the DAR said.

“The irrigation system is expected to reduce production costs and ensure a year-round increase in yield from root crops and vegetable production activities,” said Nerisa Aldea, provincial agrarian reform program officer.

The project was implemented under the DAR’s climate-resilient farm productivity support program in cooperation with the National Irrigation Administration.

The project turnover was simultaneously conducted with the graduation ceremony of the Farm Business School, a capacity-building program for farmer-beneficiaries in Dariao.