Philippines to Release Revised Farmland Conversion Rules in August

Revised guidelines governing farmland conversion are expected to be released in August, Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. said on Thursday. Speaking on the sidelines of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines’ Food Security Forum, Mr. Laurel said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has been ordered to make further revisions to the draft, which should be released “in another week or two.” He said the guidelines will streamline the conversion process to make it easier for land owners. The DA said constraints to land conversion include a minimum of 3 million hectares of rice land which the DA wants to maintain. “When it comes to development, we will maintain the need for municipalities to have land use plans before we grant conversion,” Mr. Laurel told reporters. Mr. Laurel said the DA intends to reject farmland conversions for land on slopes of less than 8%, citing strong demand for conversions by renewable energy projects, particularly solar power. “If it doesn’t have an agri component, we don’t want them to be in our flat land that is very highly productive, especially irrigated land,” Mr. Laurel said. Mr. Laurel also said that the DA will generally discourage development on irrigated land unless required by law. The moratorium on certifying land use reclassifications came into force in January, but was lifted in June. — Marron Joshua F. Mendoza