Farmers and food producers from Central Luzon are being driven deeper into poverty due to aggressive land conversion under the Marcos government’s Build Better More (BBM) program, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) warned today. Hundreds of farmers from Tarlac, Pampanga, Zambales and Bulacan are now on the second day of their protest camp-out against land grabbing and land use conversion. The week-long activity is a continuing appeal to save the country’s rice granary and protect lands devoted to food and agriculture.

Rice farmers’ incomes have been shrinking since the passage of the Rice Liberalization Law in 2019. Based on official data from the PSA, net returns from rice farming dropped from P42,227 per hectare in 2018 to just P22,490 in 2023 — a staggering 47% decline. Farmgate prices for palay remain at P12 to P17 per kilo — far below production costs. The rising costs of fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation have further squeezed farmers’ earnings, leaving them with average monthly net incomes of less than P2,000 per hectare.

Employment in agriculture in Central Luzon dropped from 659,000 workers in 2015 to 592,000 in 2019 — a loss of 159,000 jobs. The numbers further increased in the past years due to the Rice Liberalization Law. Farmers displaced by RLL and infrastructure projects have been forced to take low-paying informal jobs in the service sector or migrate to urban centers. “The government is deliberately displacing farmers to make way for land use conversions,” said Danilo Ramos, chairperson of KMP and a Makabayan senatorial candidate. “They are destroying livelihoods and creating economic refugees in the name of development for local and foreign businesses.”

KMP demands that the Marcos administration halt land conversion for infrastructure and commercial development, increase farmgate prices for palay, provide direct subsidies for farm inputs and irrigation, and implement a national food security strategy that prioritizes rice self-sufficiency over imports. “If the government continues down this path, Filipinos will soon eat concrete instead of rice,” Ramos warned. ###. Peasant Watch CL