More but smaller farms, PSA notes

The legacy of agrarian reform– breaking down farms into smaller sizes of initially 3 to 5 hectares– have forced farmers to sell or pawn their landholdings as they found farming to be not viable and unsustainable.

In worse times, like previous decades, they offered their small landholdings to land conversion for easy cash, which led to substantial shrinking in farm size and farm yields.

Under the new rice program of the government– or the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program adopted by former Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian– farmers were encouraged to cluster to ensure a viable size where they could optimize their inputs, irrigation use and mechanization, including drone use. This only goes to show that the agrarian reform (or breaking down farm size) is a failure.

The Philippine Statistics Authority has confirmed that the country’s average farm size had shrunk to 0.83 hectares in 2022 from 3.61 hectares in 1970, declining by 77 percent. 

“Comparing 2022 to previous years underscores the extent of this decline,” the PSA was quoted by Business Mirror.

Despite the increase in the number of farms, the PSA said the total area of farms has steadily declined since 1991.

PSA figures showed that the total farm areas in 2022 plunged by 38.2 percent to 6.16 million hectares from 9.97 million hectares in 1991.

It added that farm area in 2022 “remains substantially smaller” even when compared to earlier years, such as the 9.73 million hectares recorded in 1980 and 8.49 million hectares in 1970.

The number of farms, however, grew as of 2022, PSA said, adding that  7.43 million farms with a crop farm and/or a livestock and poultry operation were recorded from January 1 to December 31, 2022. This was higher than the 5.56 million farms in 2012.

Among regions, the PSA said Western Visayas reported the highest number of farms in 2022, with 779,000 farms covering a total area of 454,000 hectares. Central Visayas trailed behind as it had 722,000 farms spanning 305,000 hectares.

The National Capital Region (NCR) recorded the least number of farms, with only 34,000 farms and an area of 15,000 hectares.

The PSA noted that the top three regions with the highest farm area were Soccsksargen with 600,000 hectares, Bicol Region with 519,000 hectares, and Cagayan Valley with 514,000 hectares.

Across regions, PSA said Soccsksargen reported the largest average area of farm at 1.26 hectares per farm in 2022. It added that five more regions reported an average farm area of over one hectare.

This includes Cagayan Valley (1.16 hectares per farm), Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) (1.10 hectares per farm), Central Luzon (1.05 hectares per farm), Caraga, (1.04 hectares per farm), and Davao Region (1.03 hectares per farm).

The PSA said these results are based on the 2022 Census of Agriculture and Fisheries (CAF) conducted among households and non-household entities that operated agriculture activities from January 1 to December 31, 2022.

It added that household interviews for the 2022 CAF were conducted in September to November 2023, while non-household interviews were conducted in May to July 2023.