SRA, DAR to set up sugarcane farms for land reform beneficiaries

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) are setting up 29 block farms for sugarcane mostly in the Visayas and Mindanao this year.

 

The block farms support the DAR goal of improving the technical and entrepreneurial skills of CARP beneficiaries in agribusiness, said SRA Administrator Ma. Regina Bautista-Martin. 

 

This phase of the block farming scheme was initiated by SRA  for a more efficient and less costly sugar production, with the first phase implemented in Batangas last year.

 

The scheme covers agriculture lands owned by beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), and is expected to increase the farm-based income of CARP beneficiaries.

 

SRA and DAR has signed an agreement in which the sugar industry regulator will manage the farms as a technical assistance. Ownership of the land remains with agrarian reform beneficiaries.

 

A combined funding of P41.4 million will be pooled to fund the scheme, of which P29 million will come from DAR and 12.4 million from the Department of Agriculture. SRA will provide technical assistance and livelihood support.

 

Participants will have access to the Agrarian Production Credit Program for CARP beneficiaries implemented by the Departments of Agriculture and of Agrarian Reform and Land Bank of the Philippines.

 

Phase Two of the block farming scheme covers Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Bukidnon, Iloilo and North Cotabato, as well as Tarlac, Batangas, Albay Antique, Capiz and Davao del Sur.

"We have already identified these areas and hopefully they can start planting in the next cropping season," said Rosemarie Gumera, SRA Policy and Planning Department Manager in a text message. — VS, GMA News