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NORDIS
WEEKLY May 21, 2006 |
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Tenurial rights, sharing top Ilocos peasant woes |
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BAGUIO CITY (Mayo 13) — On top of the worsening political and economic crisis the country is facing, the Filipino peasants are also burdened by security of tenure and other problems in agricultural production. Particularly in the Ilocos Region, majority of rice farmers are still tenants because most of them do not own the land they till. According to the Department of Agriculture (DA), a family of six should till and own three (irrigated) to five (non-irrigated) hectares of land to live decently. However, Ilocos farmers on the average own 0.4 has, according to Solidarity of Peasants against Exploitation (Stop-Ex). Abe Dacanay Stop-Ex spokesperson in an interview said that aside from not enough land to till, tenant-farmers are exposed to unfair practices imposed by large land owners. According to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the standard sharing of produce should be 75% for the farmer and 25% for the land owner. However, Dacanay criticized DAR for not seeing to the said sharing scheme. He said that the usual practice in Ilocos is 50:50. He added that Stop-Ex even documented cases where the farmers get only 40% and the land owner 60%. Dacanay stressed that there are even cases where for every three cans of palay the farmer gets one can or 33.33% the other two cans or 66.67% goes to the landowner. Moreover, Dacanay said that if all expenses are put together, on the average, a farmer spends P31,000 per hectare per cropping, these expenses include irrigation cost, farm inputs, labor cost and miscellaneous expenses. On the other hand, Dacanay said farmers, on the average, harvest 100 sacks of palay per hectare per cropping. He stressed that with the present sharing arrangements, farmers get only 40 to 50 sacks and shoulder all the expenses. Dacanay also added that very low buying price of palay make it even harder for farmers. He added that at present, palay is sold at P6.00 per kilo; a sack of palay is 50 kilograms. He added that during lean months (June to September) palay price reaches up to P12 per kilo. Dacanay further said that the country’s membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which prompted the entry of imported rice, aggravated the already impoverished situation of farmers. He explained that while local palay produce is sold at P6 per kilo, imported milled rice commands only P4. He explained that farmers from foreign countries can afford to sell their produce at a very low price because they are subsidized by their governments. He added that local farmers, on the other hand, are neglected by the Philippine government. He also hit the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) administration for prioritizing the information technology and tourism even if majority of Filipinos are in the agriculture sector. # Kim Quitasol for NORDIS Post your comments, reactions to this article |
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