DAR Eastern Visayas vowed to distribute 91,093 hectares until 2014

Tacloban City, Leyte –Agrarian Reform regional director Eliasem Castillo vowed to distribute the remaining balance of 91,093 hectares to the farmer-beneficiaries in Eastern Visayas before the end of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with extension reform (CARPer) in 2014.

Castillo divulged that out of the 490,240 hectares scope of agrarian reform in the region, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Eastern Visayas has already distributed 399,155 hectares of agricultural lands to the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of region 8.

The director explained that among the undistributed lands, 84,000 hectares of which are truly workable and only 6,689 hectares are problematic in which he said his administration is exhausting all of its resources to distribute them to the landless and deserving farmers.

“Land distribution is our utmost priority until 2014 so that after that period we can concentrate on extending support services to our farmers,” Castillo said. He added that the CARPer does not just end in land distribution because agrarian reform is a continuing government program to eradicate poverty in the countryside.

Castillo said the CARPer laws goals include improving the lives of the farmers through tenure security, increased income, job security as well as to strengthen the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) and their organizations in terms of organizational, financial and enterprises capacities.

Furthermore, the DAR region 8’s recent P19-million road project in Daram Samar is reportedly making a huge impact in its communities, especially, the West Daram agrarian reform community (ARC). The ARC is a convergence zone or barangays for the delivery of support services such as infrastructure projects, livelihood and financing programs.

Daram Mayor Lucia Astorga said the 3.7-kilometer farm-to-market road, connecting the two barangays of Mayabay and San Roque, provided an easier access to the farmers to sell their products to bigger markets. “Our former rough and muddy road is now concrete that our farmers became more inspired to work more on their farms because they know that their farm produces would be sold not just in their own barangay but also to other areas too,” she added.

The road project is implemented under the Agrarian Refrom Community Project phase II (ARCP II), which is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Eastern Visayas has 166 ARCs in 125 municipalities and 1,060 barangays. -30- Medel Mercado, PAS, DAR