Sugarcane ‘block farming’ to be up in NegOcc, 11 provinces

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

A TWO-YEAR pilot sugarcane block farming project will be implemented to consolidate small farms owned by agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in 12 sugar-producing provinces, including Negros Occidental.

The program, with a P96.69-million initial funding, aims to increase the farmers’ profitability by applying farm economic efficiency through the consolidation of small sugar farms or the so-called ‘block’ farming’.

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Its implementation is as per a memorandum of agreement signed between and among the Sugar Regulatory Administration and the departments of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform.

Under the block farming system, small farms of less than 10 hectares will be consolidated and integrated into 30-50 hectares through various schemes such as contracting, joint venture, partnership and sharing.

The block farms will be managed as one farm so that activities in the small individual farms are aligned and implemented according to the plans of the whole block, the agreement stressed. “In this way, resources including farm workers, equipment and financing, could be utilized efficiently.”

DAR Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes stressed in a statement that “while operated as a block, the ownership of each small farm is maintained and respected.”

“Agrarian reform beneficiaries, the main participants in the block farm, will not lose their land titles. These farmers, through their farm organizations or cooperatives, will be helped by a farm manager hired by the SRA in handling the operations of the block farm,” he added.

The project is a component of the DA-SRA sugar industry roadmap to encourage small farmers to form themselves into groups or cooperatives and adopt “economies of scale to make their farm operations, including land preparation, planting, fertilization and harvesting, more cost-efficient and thus more profitable per unit area.”

With block farms, SRA Administrator Ma. Regina Bautista-Martin explained that farmers could increase sugar production from 99 to 147 bags of sugar per hectare. “This means a possible increase in income of about P39,000 for the agrarian reform beneficiaries.”

As per the agreement, the DAR will shoulder the cost of farm tractors and business development services. The DA will cover the development of irrigation facilities and the improvement of farm-to-mill roads while the SRA will shoulder the cost of agri-technology and overall management of the block farms.

The project was initially launched last January 20, 2012 in Tuy, Batangas and will soon be replicated in 15 pilot farms in the provinces of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Iloilo, Capiz, Albay, Antique, Bukidnon, Davao del Sur, Leyte, Pampanga and Tarlac.