Asia-Pacific Policy Center

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Research Papers in Economics

Land Reform, Rural Development, and Poverty in the Philippines: Revisiting the Agenda 
Asia-Pacific Policy Center 
25 November 2008 
 
 
CONTENTS 
Introduction 
Sub-study 1 - CARP and Its Impact of Agricultural and Rural Development 
Sub-study 2 - ARC as a Strategy for Poverty Reduction 
Sub-study 3 - CARP Extension Scenario – The Challenge of the Sugarlands 
Sub-study 4 - Simulating a Post-CARP Scenario 
 
This study provides analytical support of the Philippines’ thrust to improve the welfare of the rural poor 
through the extension of the CARP. To that end, it examines the current articulation and structure of the 
agrarian reform program in the Philippines and its consistency with respect to the broader rural development 
agenda currently pursued by the government and the challenges and constraints presently faced by the 
Philippine society more generally. The ultimate goal is to derive a set of policy implications and elaborate 
possible solutions aimed at making the agrarian reform program’s implementation swifter, improving its 
sustainability, strengthening its consistency with respect to the broader goals of rural development and 
poverty reduction, and enhancing its feasibility given the fiscal bind, political, and institutional constraints 
and even geo-physical conditions.  
 
Given these general objectives, the specific objectives of the study are to: 
 
1.  Determine the direct and indirect effects of the CARP on the viability of the small farm sector 
specifically the interaction between farm productivity, investment climate and rural land markets; 
 
2.  Assess the ARC strategy of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as a pro-poor rural 
development strategy, and recommend areas for improvement or suggest an alternative path to making it 
more consistent with a pro-poor rural development strategy; 
 
3.  Examine the challenges and prospects of land distribution of CARP within the extension period and 
determine the implications of the government’s bio-fuels policy on the distribution of sugarcane lands; and 
 
4.  Determine the implications of deregulating or activating land markets in sustaining the gains of the 
CARP and in improving productivity and equity in the agrarian sector. 
 
 
 
 
 
(For the full paper, please contact publications@appc-ph.com) 

Land Reform, Rural Development and Poverty in the Philippines

http://www.appc-ph.com/RePEc/app/fpaper/pdf/08110abs-landreform.pdf

Land Reform, Rural Development and Poverty in the Philippines

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Research Papers in Economics