Solon seeks to stop land-use conversion of prime agri lands

A militant lawmaker is seeking to prohibit the conversion of prime agricultural lands into other uses to avoid food insecurity and protect the environment and ecology of the country. 

Rep. Fernando L. Hicap (Party-list, Anakpawis) said in House Bill 5563 that land- use conversion ultimately is a grave threat to the country’s food security as it continues to significantly reduce the size of land available for rice and other crops.

Hicap said between 1991 and 2002, the total national farm area hectarage dramatically shrank by 304,078 hectares.

“In Cavite alone, from 1983 to 1989, the number of hectares of rice lands decreased from 14,710 to 12,800,” he said.

Hicap further said that prime rice lands that once lined both sides of the highways going to Central Luzon and Southern Luzon have been practically been erased in just a matter of four years (1990 – 1994).

“Even the highly irrigated rice lands have not been spared to give way to non-productive projects that have narrow and short-term benefits such as real estate ‘developments’ that mainly serve the luxuries of the elite,” he said.

Hicap said that, based on the report of the National Statistics Office (NSO), over 800,000 hectares of lands have already been converted to other uses since 1972.

The party-list legislator said the loss of prime agricultural lands to land use conversion has been a factor to the further weakening and deterioration of agriculture in the country.

Under the bill, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is mandated to conduct a survey, with the involvement of the National Mapping and Research Information Authority (Namria) to delineate prime agricultural lands from non-prime agricultural lands.

Prime agricultural land is defined under the measure as lands whose suitability for agricultural production or use has an average 3.0 grade or above of the combined factors of soil, fertility climate, biodiversity, terrain, irrigation and other infrastructure development.

On the other hand, the bill defines non-prime agricultural land as lands whose suitability to agricultural production of use is below the average 3.0 grade of the combined factors of soil, fertility, climate, biodiversity, terrain, irrigation and other infrastructure development.

The proposal strictly prohibits land-use conversion of prime agricultural lands until Congress has enacted a national land use plan.

Likewise, until Congress enacts a national land-use plan, the conversion of non-agricultural lands to other uses shall also be strictly prohibited in instances where the non-prime agricultural lands have been devoted to the production of rice, corn and other staple food of the community; where the non-prime agriculture lands have been occupied and made productive for at least three years by settlers, tiller-occupants or farmers and where the non-prime agricultural lands are the host of watershed areas.

The measure also strictly prohibits any person to perform such acts that cause the diminution of the economic viability or productivity of prime agricultural lands or such acts that destroy or undermine the sustainability of production in prime agricultural lands.

Hicap said the bill aims to put a stop to the decimation of prime agricultural lands as a way of protecting agriculture and the farmers as well as the environment.

The bill, which is pending at the House Committee on Natural Resources led by Rep. Francisco “Lalo” T. Matugas (First District, Surigao del Norte) was previously filed in the 15th Congress.