Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri is advocating a shift toward large-scale farming as the key to the country’s food security.
“This is the only way that we can save the agriculture sector and become truly food-secure,” Zubiri said in his speech at the 71st Philippine Sugar Technologists Association (Philsutech) Convention held in Cebu on Wednesday, August 13.
Zubiri was awarded the Don Carlos L. Locsin Award for championing the agriculture sector, especially the sugar industry, during the convention.
The senator said he has filed two priority measures in the Senate – the National Land Use Act and the Corporate Farming Act.
The National Land Use Act aims to establish a comprehensive framework for land planning and protection, with strict guidelines to prevent the conversion of agricultural lands, he said.
The Corporate Farming Act, Zubiri added, would lay the groundwork for large-scale farming by allowing the consolidation of contiguous lands.
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“This is really the key to optimizing our arable lands for higher agricultural production, and eventually, total food security. High input, high yield, high value — that is what we can expect once we seriously get into large-scale farming,” he said.
Zubiri also addressed a contentious aspect of his proposal, which would allow Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) to sell their land after a ten-year prohibitory period.
He said this measure would allow aging farmers to retire while enabling investors to consolidate lands for productive corporate farms, benefiting both the landowners and the national economy.
“They (ARBs) are past the age where they can still do back-breaking work out on the field. And their children are now choosing to pursue careers of their own, away from the world of agriculture,” he said.
Zubiri noted that because the ARBs cannot sell their land, it often sits untilled and unused, bringing no food or money to the owners or the economy.
“They cannot sell the land, either, as they are constrained by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law from doing so. They can only pass it on to their heirs — who are, again, largely uninterested in staying in the agricultural sector,” he said.
“If we truly recognize our people’s right to their land, then we must also allow them to sell their land when they and their families no longer wish to tend to it. There is no social justice in binding our beneficiaries from doing what they wish with the land that they own,” Zubiri said.
He said strict safeguards will be put in place to ensure that these CARP lands will only be made available after the ten-year prohibitory period and only to buyers who will use them for agricultural purposes.
“We are not going to allow real estate developers to come in and buy up blocks and blocks of farmlands and then convert it for subdivisions or golf courses or other non-agricultural commercial developments,” he said.
The land will remain agricultural for at least 30 years upon acquisition, Zubiri said.
“These lands were distributed as farmlands, and farmlands they will remain. The whole point of the Corporate Farming Act that allows land consolidation is to drive up agricultural production and food security, after all,” he said.
Once the law is passed, the acquisition of up to 50 hectares of contiguous lands for individuals or one-person corporations will be allowed, and 200 hectares of contiguous lands for corporations, he said. This would be a win-win situation for everyone, he added.
Agrarian reform beneficiaries, should they want to, will be able to retire from the hard labor of farming and be compensated well enough to comfortably support their families, he said.
Investors, meanwhile, will be able to consolidate lands for productive corporate farms that will yield enough for both domestic and export markets, Zubiri said.
And consumers will have access to affordable homegrown produce, he added.
“I do not expect that this is going to be a popular measure. But as an agriculturist, I strongly believe that land consolidation is the key to reviving our agriculture sector, so I am ready to fight for this bill in the Senate,” Zubiri said.*