Salient Features Of The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Carp _TOP_
Salient Features of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is a land reform policy that aims to distribute land to landless farmers and provide them with support services for rural development. CARP was instituted by Proclamation No. 131 in 1987 and implemented by Republic Act No. 6657, also known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) of 1988. CARP covers all public and private agricultural lands, regardless of tenurial arrangement and commodity produced, as mandated by the 1987 Constitution.
salient features of the comprehensive agrarian reform program carp
In this article, we will discuss the salient features of CARP, such as its objectives, scope, benefits, and challenges.
Objectives of CARP
According to Section 2 of RA 6657, the objectives of CARP are:
To promote social justice and industrialization by empowering farmers and farmworkers who are landless;
To enhance agricultural productivity and improve the lives of rural communities;
To ensure that farmers and farmworkers receive a just share of the fruits of their labor;
To encourage the development of cooperatives and other forms of collective organization;
To protect the rights of farmers and farmworkers to own directly or collectively the lands they till;
To provide farmers and farmworkers with access to credit, infrastructure, technology, education, health, and other social services;
To respect the rights of landowners to just compensation and due process;
To contribute to national development and stability by reducing rural poverty and inequality.
Scope of CARP
According to Section 4 of RA 6657, CARP covers all public and private agricultural lands, including:
Lands devoted to rice and corn under Presidential Decree No. 27;
Alienable and disposable lands of the public domain devoted to or suitable for agriculture;
All lands of the public domain in excess of the specific limits as determined by Congress;
All other lands owned by the Government devoted to or suitable for agriculture;
All private lands devoted to or suitable for agriculture regardless of the agricultural products raised or that can be raised thereon.
However, there are some exceptions to CARP coverage, such as:
Lands actually, directly, and exclusively used for parks, wildlife, forest reserves, reforestation, fish sanctuaries and breeding grounds, watersheds, and mangroves;
Lands actually, directly, and exclusively used for national defense, school sites and campuses, penal colonies and penal farms actually worked by the inmates, government and private research and quarantine centers;
Lands with eighteen percent (18%) slope and over except those already developed;
Lands not yet classified as alienable and disposable;
Lands already covered by existing agrarian reform programs.
Benefits of CARP
CARP aims to provide various benefits to its beneficiaries, such as:
Land ownership. CARP grants land titles to qualified farmers and farmworkers who are landless or own less than three hectares of agricultural land. The titles are either Emancipation Patents (EPs) or Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs), which are transferable after ten years from issuance.
Land valuation. CARP ensures that landowners receive just compensation for their lands based on several factors such as market value, cost of acquisition, current use, income, sworn valuation by the owner, tax declarations, assessment by government assessors, and social benefits.
Land distribution. CARP distributes land to beneficiaries through various modes such as voluntary offer to sell (VOS), voluntary land transfer (VLT), compulsory acquisition (CA), leasehold operation (LO), stock distribution option (SDO), joint venture agreement (JVA), production-sharing agreement (PSA), build-operate-transfer (BOT), or any other scheme approved by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC).
Support services. CARP provides support services to beneficiaries such as credit facilities, infrastructure projects, extension c481cea774