Agrarian Reform: Good intentions but bad results?

Originally posted at http://scopemix.wordpress.com/

Photo credit:  http://landwatchasia.files.wordpress.com/

Another way to improve governance is to abolish the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

Though the intent of the Agrarian Reform program is very good, this is not the best way to help alleviate the lives of our farmers.  For many years the money spent on Agrarian Reform piled up but there is little to show in terms of its impact towards the improvement in the economic situation in the countryside.  On the contrary, this contributed to the stagnation instead of better productivity of our farms.  Is this is a case of a road to hell paved with good intentions?  

When land ownership is transferred to the farmers, suddenly they (the farmers) need to become entrepreneurial.  The government then give more assistance so they can transform themselves from an “employee mentality” to a “manager mentality”.  But sad to say, most of them cannot do it.  Entrepreneurship after all is something that comes from within, not something that can be imposed.  The government in the end caused the difficulties.  Aside from the lack of business know-how, these farmers possess small parcels of land which is not conducive to modern farming methods.  In modern farming, like those in advanced countries, a big tract of land can be managed by a few people.  In our land reform, it is a case of many farmers, each possessing a small plot of land.  The productivity or output per person in the latter case is so small, allowing only subsistence livelihood.

One factor that contributes to the Philippines having many overseas workers is that those from the  countryside want change in their lives.  They want to have a better standard of living.  With the substantial budget of the Department of Agrarian Reform, the government can put this money to better use if they instead send the sons and daughters of these farmers to colleges.  When these children become professionals, they can lead better lives rather than inherit such existence from their parents.

We don’t need to worry if the population of our farmers will go down.  We will just transfer them to the service sector where they can make a better living.  Our farmers comprise around 40% of our population.  If this percentage will go down, there will be no negative impact in our economy.  After all, even a huge country such as the United States is being fed by farmers comprising only 2% of their population.

The idea of abolishing the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is not originally mine.  I have read it somewhere, sometime ago.  It happened to be correct as far as I observed from what is happening around that I felt obliged to say something about such nonsense.  Many reasoning though are mine, digging from what little I know about organizational management, economics, business, and sociology.

P.S.
Whenever there are reorganizations like this, a great deal should be done to transfer the affected government employees to other agencies where their skills are needed.