Community Empowerment Facility Profile

BACKGROUND

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) became legislation in The Philippines in 1988 at which time farmers began to obtain land titles but only after a long, and sometimes violent, history. The real challenge has been to provide new landholders with the skills to render their lands productive, improve their livelihoods thus providing them with an incentive to retain, rather than sell or lease, their land back to the former landowner. An estimated 250 000 hectares of sugar lands could be sold into private hands, such as the 172-hectare Carmencita farm in Capiz Province, Panay Island. Although local farmers succeeded in acquiring title to the sugar estate's lands, they did not have access to extension, credit and other services vital to making the land productive.

With a relatively modest investment of just over US$ 32 000, International Land Coalition, working with the Center for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (CARRD), has pioneered a path to assist farmers to reap the benefits from hard won land titles.

Making the Land Work

The Carmencita land reform beneficiaries had been plantation labourers for many years but they did not have the skills and knowledge to manage and run their lands, either as individual plots or on a collective basis. With the help of the NGO, CARRD, a project was designed to facilitate the transition by the community from agriculture workers to farmers. CARRD, an NGO specialized in agrarian reform, acted as a temporary farm manager until such time as the cooperative members gained the skills and confidence to manage the estate lands themselves. Through CARRD, farmers received agricultural and technical training at the same time learning how to organize themselves to gain access to credit, inputs, extension and other services.

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GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

In order to provide sugar workers with the training and confidence they needed to make their lands profitable, the CARRD project undertook to organize and strengthen the sugar workers' capacity to manage the farms on a collective basis, in order to improve their incomes and to develop a collective farm as an alternative model for managing former plantations.

A key factor in the CEF decision to provide support to CARRD was not only to help poor farmers but to also present to the government a methodology for providing post land reform assistance to beneficiaries. All too often, the lack of access to related productive factors, results in land reform beneficiaries selling or leasing their land back to the former land owner, only to find their household situation unchanged. This project aims to help change this pattern. It is hoped that this CEF-supported initiative will be used as a model for the government for post land reform support and services.

Eleven years after agrarian reform had been adopted in the The Philippines, only an estimated 54 percent of the land had been distributed. Furthermore, State support services reached only 14 percent of all beneficiaries of the agrarian reform process and official data indicates that production levels have risen only slightly, if at all, for all major crops. In such a situation, alternative means of intervention are needed to reach poor farmers and landless peasants. Where NGOs have a record of successful intervention, they can be strong partners of both government and funding partners who share the common goal to ensure land reform beneficiaries gain access to other factors necessary to raise their productivity and incomes. It is only under these conditions that the true goal of reform can be realized - eradicating poverty by improving productivity, raising household food security, increasing family incomes and building secure livelihoods.

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WHO WILL BENEFIT?

Altogether some 330 sugar farm households benefited during the first complete sugar cropping and milling cycle (18 months). In this first agricultural cycle, 468 hectares of sugar land have been involved across a total area of nearly 650 hectares over the three sugar plantations in Panay Island . The benefits have also involved the identification and training of a core group of leading farmers who have learned how to formulate and implement a comprehensive and sustainable development plan, effectively manage the programmes and services of the cooperative for the benefit of the whole membership and the community, and lead the members in productive work, collective action, and organize meetings and other community events.

By February 2001, the project was already able to show significant results. In terms of organizing and strengthening local communities, membership in the farmers' cooperative increased from 54 and 81 percent in the three plantations in Capiz Province assisted under the CARRD-CEF project. In two cases, formal financial and operational policies have been established and are being implemented by the cooperatives. Over seven new businesses have been started involving rice retailing, collective farming, micro-lending, loans for fertilizer purchase, and for food processing. CARRD was able to release over 600 000 Philippine Pesos in seed funding for collective sugar farming with assistance from the CEF and others, while several savings schemes have generated greater funds for, and managed by, the cooperative members themselves. In two of the three sites, Project Management structures have been established, with CARRD acting as temporary administrator. At the site of the Carmencita estate, sugarcane yields increased by 54 percent for the year 2000-2001.

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CONCLUSION

Among the most positive results of the CARRD-CEF cooperation is success of the farmers, previously employed on large, privately-run estates, not only to maintain their lands but potentially to increase their livelihoods through the training and organizational ca pa cities provided by the project. In many cases, sugar workers from many estates and neighbouring towns also attended the initial negotiations and community meetings at the Carmencita plantation, indicating an interest to take part in similar farm management and capacity-building arrangements in other sugar estates. If project had not been realized it is likely that the farmers would have been forced to lease back their newly-acquired lands to the former landowner, sell their land rights and entitlements or enter into one-sided and long-term contract agreements with large agribusiness corporations.

As a member of AR NOW - the People's Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network in the Philippines - a nationwide network of NGOs, farmers' and professional federations, CARRD has the capacity to increase its outreach and to spread the word among other similar community groups. Through networking, project replication and lobbying with groups such as AR NOW, CARRD can expect to make a valuable contribution to the process of agrarian reform and post reform services needed by farmers. The example of the sugar farmers in Capiz Province is an example of how former tenants can become farmer/landowners, provided they have access to training, credit, marketing and support services.

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