PART I“AGRARIAN REFORM…”

CONCEPTSASPECTS OF AGRARIAN REFORMIMPLEMENTATION OF AGRARIAN REFORMCOMPARATIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAMSAGRARIAN REFORM AND BALANCED DEVELOPMENT

A. CONCEPT

Meaning of Land Reform

Reform implies the existence of a defect that something is deformed of malformed and does not suit existing conditions.

In broad sense, land reform refers to the full range of measures that may or should be taken to improve or remedy the defects in the relations among men with respect to their rights in land.

The term has also been defined as an integrated set of measures designed to eliminate obstacles to economic and social development arising out of defects in the agrarian structure. Land reform thus involves the “transformation of agrarian structure” or what are sometimes called “structural reforms.”“Land reform” is often used interchangeably with “agrarian reform” but in actuality, the latter is much broader than the reformer.

Meaning of Agrarian Structure

In the above context, agrarian structure is defined as a complex set of relationship within the agricultural sector among tenure structure, production structure and the structure of supporting services. A comprehensive land reform program can never be complete without integrated reforms of all three structures.

Meaning of Land Tenure Structure

Land tenure structure is a concept which refers to one or more types of land tenure systems regulating the rights to ownership and control and usage of land and the duties accompanying such tights.

Agricultural tenancy, as a manner of holding agricultural lands, is only one of several forms of land tenure or rights in land. It involves the question of whether share tenancy or leasehold tenancy is adopted. Under share tenancy, tillers work on the land as sharecroppers entitled to share in the produce of the land.

One of the main defects of our country agrarian structure was the high proportion of share tenancy in our country. In this regard, our Code of Agrarian Reforms automatically converts tenants to lessees. (Sec. 4, infra.) The next stage is the conversion of the lessee to amortizing owner; and finally to own-cultivator. (Sec. 2[1], infra.) Pursuant to Presidential Decree No.27, tenant-farmers are deemed amortizing owners of rice and/or corn lands they till.

Example of Land Tenure Reform Measures

Land tenure reform measures would include the following:1. Redistribution of private lands2. Distribution of lands in the public domain,

sometimes also referred to as resettlement or colonization

3. Regulation of tenancy4. Regulation of agricultural labor contracts and

wages; and5. Elimination of absentee landlordism and transfer

of land ownership to the actual tillers.

Meaning of Production Structure

Production structure is a concept which relates to the nature, type and modus operandi as well as the actual process of production or farm operation.

It is also directly related to the size, location and shape of the production unit holding, which may be operated singly or with assistance from others.

Examples of Production Structures Distinguished

The following would fall under production reform measures:

1. Consolidation of small, uneconomic holdings to insure optimum utilization

2. Imposition of a floor on holdings of uneconomic size beyond which subdivision is to be prevented

3. Promotion of cooperative or compact farming among sub marginal farmers

4. imposition of a ceiling on holdings of non-cultivating owners

5. Organization of crop rotation system

Land Tenure and Production Structures Distinguished

The land tenure structure must be distinguished from the production structure as it is necessary to make a distinction between the concept of “rights in land” and the concept of production and use of land”. Essentially, this implies a clear distinction between the ownership holding and the operation holding.

The first concept referring to the rights over land, whether in terms of full ownership or as circumscribed by law, irrespective of the manner in which the holding is operated or managed.

The second is a concept referring to the actual management of holding or the manager in which the land is cultivated or operated irrespective of ownership.

Meaning of Structure of Supporting Services

The structure of supporting services is a concept which involves matters like credit, marketing, the supplying of agricultural requisites, processing, storage, etc. and other technical assistance bearing on reforms of tenure and production structures.

These services are provided mainly by the Department of Agrarian Reform, the Land Bank and the Bureau of Agricultural Extension and they are designed to insure the success of the farmer who has acquired a new tenure status as lessee, amortizing owner-cultivator. They prepare the lessee for landownership and assist the owner-cultivator to use the land more productively and thus increase his income.

Meaning of Agrarian Reform

Agrarian reform is considered wider than land reform.

1. The term comprises not only land reform, the reform of tenure, production and supporting services.

2. In the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 (R.A No. 6657), agrarian reform is defined to mean “the redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced, to farmers and regular farm workers who are landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement, to include the totality of factors and support services designed to lift the economics status of the beneficiaries and all other arrangements alternative to the physical redistribution of lands, such as production or profit-sharing, land administration and the distribution of shares of stock, which will allow beneficiaries to receive a just share of the fruits of the lands they work.”

Examples of Agrarian Reform Measures

Agrarian reform would, therefore, also cover the following:

1. Public health programs2. Family planning3. Education and training of farmers4. Reorganization of land reforms agencies5. Application of labor laws to agricultural

workers

6. Construction of infrastructure facilities such as feeder roads, irrigation systems, etc., and the establishment of rural electrification

7. Organization of various types of voluntary associations

8. Providing employment opportunities to underemployed or surplus rural labor; and

9. Other services of a community development nature

B. ASPECTS OF AGRARIAN REFORM

Economic Aspect of Agrarian Reform

1. Vital position of agricultural in national economy.

2. Obstacles to agricultural productivity.3. Agrarian reform, an instrument for

increasing agricultural productivity.

Socio-cultural Aspect of Agrarian Reform

1. Agrarian reform, a multifaceted program.2. Assumptions about Filipino tenant farmers.

To mention only the relevant ones, these are, namely:a. The tenancy problem has its roots in pre-Spanish and Spanish pasts. It is, therefore, a centuries old problem;b. deeply rooted in history, the tenancy system created a kind of tenants who are strongly traditional and highly dependent-minded; and

c. There are only three kinds of landlords; the benevolent one who acts like a father to the tenant; the malevolent one who oppresses, and one with the combined characteristics of the first two.

3. Socio-cultural changes from agrarian reform.According to the general experience in

countries which have achieved successes in their agrarian reform programs, agrarian reform had resulted to favorable socio-cultural changes which may be summarized as follows;

a. A change from self-subsistent outlook to one of surplus. The farmers began putting all their energies in the farm;

b. A sound social order in the farming villages was enhanced significantly. The farmers became more conscious of the need to maintain peace and stability in the community so that they could continuously enjoy the increased benefits in the farm;

c. Farmers’ initiative and active participation in leadership roles were promoted. Before, such roles were the monopoly of the landowning class. After land reform, farmers began forming associations stood in equal footing with their erstwhile landlords in social gatherings and club meetings. They, too began to take active participation in local and national elections; and

d. As land reform enhanced agricultural productivity and consequently, increase net family incomes, the farmer were able to send their to school. They widened their contracts with the outside world through frequent trips to market and other places or through communication facilities which they acquired.

Religious Aspect of Agrarian Reform

1. Biblical background.2. Papal teachings3. Church estates

Moral Aspect of Agrarian Reform

Agrarian reform is demanded by the moral laws under so many titles.

1. One reason concerns the peace and internal stability of a country.

2. Another reason for agrarian reform is the fact that the land-owner has been more than compensated for his investment on land, while the tenant who made the landlord’s profits possible is still immersed in poverty

3. There is also the question of injustice involved in landlordism.

4. Another consideration concerns the innate tendency of everyman to own land.

5. A final consideration concerns the economy.

Legal Aspect of Agrarian Reform

1. Two vantage points. ---- strictly legal and sociological.

2. Agrarian reform legislations to conform with Constitution.

3. Constitutional mandates.4. Policy development concerning agrarian

reform.

Political Aspect of Agrarian Reform

1. Agrarian reform, a top-priority goal of government.

2. Agrarian reform as a political process.

C.IMPLEMENTATION OF AGRARIAN

REFORM

Ways of Effecting changes in Agrarian Reform

Changes in the agrarian structure can be achieved in practice by revolutionary means, by an authoritarian regime or by evolutionary means through the democratic process.

1. In a revolutionary situation, it is accomplished as a result of a shift of political, economic and administrative power to a class which would benefit directly by the forms.

2. It can also be introduced by an authoritarian regime already in power as a means of broadening its political base and of accomplishing certain desired economic and social changes.

3. The implementation of land reform within a politically democratic framework, however, presents problems.

Requirements For Successful Implementation Of Agrarian

ReformMany countries in Asia and in the Far East have legislated for programs of agrarian reform during the last four decades. There has been however, a wide gap between the declared objectives of such legislation and the actual realization. This has been attributed to the failure to appreciate the peculiar nature and the needs of land reform implementation.

1. Agrarian reform is a complex and often controversial program which usually meets with opposition form vested interests. It is, therefore, necessary that any organization for its implementation should provide for a line of command from the center to filed levels in order to insure that policy is enforced and supported at all levels.

2. In view of the fact that all support is usually withdrawn by landlord on the introduction of the program, it is essential that beneficiaries are provided with the necessary supporting services.

3. Since the preventing political, economic, social and administrative systems are usually weighed against the would-be beneficiaries, it is necessary that the administrative organization and procedures as well as the judicial system by which the newly conferred rights are to be enforced, are refashioned in such a manner as to enable the attainment of the objective of the program; and

4. Lastly, since existing administrators are often not adequately oriented or sympathetic towards the reforms and such a program is often obstructed by vested interests at all levels, it is desirable to involve the beneficiaries in the implementation of the programs.

D. COMPARATIVE AGRARIAN

REFORM PROGRAMS

Agrarian Reform Program Classified

The history of agrarian reform is a long one and consequently there have evolved several program models. Any agrarian reform program will fall under either of the following:

1. Rearrangement of tenancy relations.2. Redistribution of land to the peasants by:

a. distribution of land in the public domain, sometimes also preferred to as settlement or colonization

b. the distribution of private lands and landed estates and parceling them to the tenants, accompanied by a message program of technical and financial assistance by the government.

c. consolidationd. confiscation of private lands

Agrarian Reform Program in Various Countries

The various agrarian reform programs in many countries, while basically the same in their objectives, vary in their specific. Where redistribution of land is the principal prop of a State’s agrarian reform program, the following points become cogent:

1. Retention ceiling2. Recipients or beneficiaries of the redistribution

program3. Valuation4. Mode of payment5. Repayment of new owners

6. Government support– Two methods as far as direction of repayment is concerned, have been adopted:

a. the farmer directly pays for his land to the original landowner under a system of amortization with the least interference form the government; and

b. in the majority of democratic and developing countries, the new owners pay the government who earlier has acquired or expropriated these properties from private owners.

7. Obligations of the new ownersThese conditions, which are almost universal,

are the following:a. fragmentation of allocated land is almost

always prohibited to prevent further subdivision of the land as to make it uneconomic

b. one cannot be a recipient of land unless he becomes a member of the cooperative

c. land is not transferable except in cases of inheritance; and

d. recipients of expropriated lands must personally cultivate their lands and at best, they can only hire agricultural labor. Subletting is generally prohibited.

E. AGRARIAN REFORM AND

BALANCED DEVELOPMENT

Agrarian Reform And Industrialization

1. The first, a vehicle for the second.2. Relationship between agriculture and industry.

Industrialization needs from agrarian reform and a developed agriculture, the following:a. surplus agricultural crops as raw materials;b. mass purchasing power of the peasant masses;c. capital and skill released from underutilized land by agrarian reform; andd. manpower from rural areas

On the other hand, agrarian reform and agricultural development need from a well-developed industry, the following:

a. market for surplus productionb. agricultural machinery, chemicals and

researchc. employment for excess manpower; andd. capital generated by industry.

3. Important condition for industrialization. – To industrialize, the following condition are imperative:

a. we have a labor force that is more or less adequately fed on very cheap staples.

b. we must develop an agricultural sector that is increasingly well-off in terms of surplus income. Not all our products can be exported; and

c. there must be consumption within the country. This internal or domestic demand cannot be created unless the farming sector is able to afford the products of industry.

Agrarian Reform And Urbanization

1. Requirement for urbanization.2. Development inputs from agricultural

sector.3. Interdependence between the cities and

farms.

Agrarian Reform And Community Development

1. Meaning of community development.2. Two basic elements.

a. the active participation by the people themselves in efforts to improve their level of living with as much reliance as possible on their own initiative and resources; and

b. The provision of technical and material assistance by the government wherever and whenever such assistance is necessary and in ways which will encourage, self-help and mutual help.

3. An approach to agrarian reform4. Supporting institutions to agrarian reform

To ensure the continuity of the enthusiasm and spontaneous acrion generated in local agrarian reformefforts, it is necessary:

a. To broaden the base of these institutions to include all interests in the local community;

b. To provide new institutions initially with adequate external financial, technical and political support; and

c. To continuously expose these institutions to new knowledge and scientific advances relevant to their needs.

Agrarian Reform And Cooperatives

1. Cooperatives support Agrarian Reform Program.

2. Cooperatives benefit farmer.3. Policy of the state with respect to

cooperatives.