ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / July 25, 2013) – The Department of Agrarian Reform in Western Mindanao on Thursday trumpeted its accomplishments in the acquisition and distribution of lands to Filipino beneficiaries as part of the government’s land reform program.
DAR Regional Chief Julita Ragandang said the agency has distributed some 221,829 hectares of land to 119,544 agrarian reform beneficiaries as of June this year.
She said they also surveyed over 94,000 hectares and subdivided more than 50,000 hectares of land under the Collective Certificates Land Ownership Award and a total of 32,451 hectares have been placed under the leasehold covering 17,707 agrarian reform beneficiaries.
Ragandang said the DAR, which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary, resolved some 353 cases under the so-called Agrarian Legal Assistance program. This involved 398 agrarian reform beneficiaries from January to June, also this year.
The DAR Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board, she added, also resolved 298 cases.
“We have been working hard to really implement the DAR programs and projects and so far, we are doing well and we hope to continue as long as necessary so more Filipino farmers will benefit from all these efforts,” Ragandang said.
She said the total number of Agrarian Reform Communities have reached 152 in the region and 121 of these are benefiting from foreign-assisted projects.
The DAR in Western Mindanao covers the provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Basilan, including Zamboanga City.
Ragandang said in Zamboanga del Sur, the agency has the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services among its ongoing projects are the integrated rice-duck farming and processing worth over P12 million, and organic agriculture and social enterprise with a budget of P3.7 million.
Those are on top of the 2.2 million service facilities – combine harvester, reapers and hand tractors.
And in Zamboanga del Norte, the P31.6 million cacao production and processing development project and the rice mechanization and palay production project worth P3.4 million, and also the abaca production and processing worth P1.1 million. These are also on top of equipment such as combine harvester and flat bed dryer.
In Zamboanga Sibugay, over P29 million worth of projects are benefiting the agrarian reform beneficiaries and these include sustainable trainings on rubber enterprise, project enhancement to assist coconut farming enterprise, among others.
The DAR approved a total of P1.2 billion worth of rural infrastructure projects in Western Mindanao, Ragandang said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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