The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Go Negosyo on Tuesday, June 6, began tackling the benefits of farm clustering in an aim to boost productivity and help ensure food security. Go Negosyo-DAR meeting on private sector-led initiative KALAP program (Photo from Go Negosyo) This was recommended by Kapatid Angat Lahat Program Agri Program (KALAP) and think thank group Foundation for Economic Freedom, represented by Dr. Fermin Adriano. “Clustering does not mean consolidation of land ownership but merely the clustering of land for better production scheduling,” said Adriano. He added this process has already led to higher farm productivity in China, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, among others. Adriano cited this would “enable the government to effectively provide assistance to farmers who are clustered because it will deal with groups rather than millions of individual small tillers.” A statement from Go Negosyo said that clustering will also pave way for the use of modern farm machineries and technologies, thereby achieving economies of scale, and allow the development of downstream industries like food processing activities, because of adequate and reliable supply of raw materials. “The process would also improve access to government services like extension, credit for clustered farms. Farming will also be more attractive to private sector groups to invest in agriculture because of lesser transaction,” it read. During the meeting, former presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion underscored the government’s crucial role to the private-sector led initiative KALAP that aims to bring progress among Filipino farmers. “Uplifting the lives of our small farmers is a daunting task. We need all hands on deck to accomplish this,” Concepcion, who is the lead of the Private Sector Advisory Council-Jobs Sector Group, said. He met with DAR officials, led by Secretary Conrado Estrella, who expressed willingness to assist in the KALAP program. Such program aims to integrate small farmers and agri-entrepreneurs into the value chain of large companies to boost their livelihood. “We thank the Department of Agrarian Reform for expressing willingness to help our initiative to help our farmers scale up,” Concepcion, also the Go Negosyo founder, said. In their meeting, he stressed the need for small farmers to achieve scale for them to succeed. “Farmers cannot obtain a loan from banks that they can use to boost production and improve their lives because they cannot use their land as collateral under agrarian reform law,” he noted. Adriano also called for the immediate and proper implementation of the law condoning the debt of defaulting agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) to accelerate farm clustering. “The implementing rules and regulations of the law must ensure that the administrative burden of transferring land ownership to farmer beneficiaries is not burdensome and allow beneficiaries to enter into a leasehold contract agreement with investors but ensure that land will not be converted to non-agricultural uses,” he said. Estrella expressed support for the proposal since it would allow DAR to tap its network of beneficiaries. He lauded the big brother companies under the KALAP program for their willingness to share technology, resources, and best practices with farmers. The DAR secretary also said KALAP’s big brother companies would be an assured market for the farmers. “I am happy that KALAP’s big brothers are willing to share their technology to DAR. We want to tap into the knowlege of the big brothers to better prepare the beneficiaries of agrarian reform so that the land will be utilized properly,” Estrella said. DAR, he added, can also provide credit assistance to agrarian reform beneficiaries if needed. Meanwhile, National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Administrator Eddie Guillen highlighted that the success of the agricultural sector also depends on the private sector. “If magsucceed ito sa mga (If this would succeed among) agri reform beneficiaries, mas madaming makikinabang (many would benefit),” he said. Guillen also revealed that President Marcos wants to harmonize concerned agencies and their functions, instead of establishing a task force. President Marcos earlier ordered the geomapping of all agricultural lands in the country to establish soil maps for specific agricultural products to ensure increased yield and improve farmers’ income. DAR Undersecretaries Jesry Palmares, Marilyn Barua-Yap, Kazel Celeste, Napoleon Galit and Amihilda Sangcopan, NIA Deputy Administrator Ralph Du also attended the Go Negosyo-DAR meeting. Also in attendance were KALAP members Winston Uy of Universal Leaf, Tennyson Chen of Bounty Fresh, Nando Cojuangco of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac, James Amparo of Yovel East Agriventures, Michelle Gankee of SL Agritech, Jovy Hernandez of Metro Pacific Agro Ventures, Dr. Leo Obviar of San Miguel Foods, Francisco Dizon of Dizon Farms and Aldiz Incorporated, lawyer Haziell Pascua of Lionheart Farms and Go Negosyo Executive Director Mina Akram.