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Documente Cultură
LAND CONVERSION
I. Introduction
Land Use Conversion is the act or process of changing the current physical use of a
piece of agricultural land into some other use or for another agricultural use other than the
cultivation of the soil, planting of crops, growing of trees, including harvesting of produce
therefrom, as approved by DAR (DAR, 2002).
R.A. 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, allows the conversion
of awarded lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)
after the lapse of five (5) years from the granting of the award, if they are no
longer economically feasible and sound for agricultural purposes, or the locality
has become urbanized giving the subject lands greater economic value for
residential, commercial or industrial purposes.
R.A. 7916 or Special Economic Zone Act identifies areas for economic zone
development and prescribes the manner of identifying such areas.
R.A. 7160 or Local Government Code of 1991 provides the rules for
reclassification of agricultural lands at the local level in terms of authority, grounds
for reclassification and limitations.
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a. Under Executive Order No. 129-A, Series of 1987, the Department of Agrarian
Reform is authorized to:
b. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law provides that the DAR ... may
authorize the reclassification or conversion on the land and its disposition.
[Section 65]
2. Conversion
a. After the lapse of five (5) years from its award, when the land ceases to be
economically feasible and sound for agricultural purposes, or the locality has
become highly urbanized and the land will have greater economic value for
residential, commercial or industrial purposes, the DAR, upon application of the
beneficiary or the landowner, may authorize the reclassification or conversion on
the land and its disposition: Provided, That the beneficiary shall have fully paid
his obligation. [Section 65]
i. Five (5) years had lapsed from the award of the land;
ii. The land ceases to be economically feasible and sound for agricultural
purposes, or the locality has become highly urbanized and the land will have
greater economic value for residential, commercial or industrial purposes; and
c. Administrative Order No. 20, Series of 1992 [Took effect on 30 December 1992]
i. All irrigated or irrigable agricultural lands shall not be subject to and non-
negotiable for conversion;
ii. All other agricultural lands may be converted only upon strict compliance
with existing laws, rules and regulations.
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3. Disturbance Compensation
2. The State shall ensure that all sectors of the economy and all regions of the
country are given optimum opportunity to develop, through the rational and
sustainable use of resource I peculiar to each area, in order to maximize
agricultural productivity, to promote efficiency and equity, and to accelerate the
modernization of the agriculture sector of the country; and
(1) when the land ceases to be economically feasible and sound for agricultural
purposes as determined by the Department of Agriculture (DA) [or];
(2) where the land shall have substantially greater economic value for residential,
commercial, or industrial purposes, as determined by the sanggunian concerned
[:] ; OR
A. The total area of existing agricultural land in the local. Government unit
(LGU) concerned;
B. That such lands are not included among those classified for conversion
or reclassification under ar 20, series of 1992;
(2) A certification from the dar that such lands are not distributed or programmed
for distribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries; and
All other agricultural lands not identifies as prime agricultural lands can only be
converted to non-agricultural uses upon issuance of a DAR conversion order:
Provided, that such conversion shall not drastically change the nature of the
over-all land uses in the surrounding and adjacent areas from its existing land
use.
Provided, That consistent with the State policy on the giving priority to the
completion of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), those
lands covered under compulsory acquisition/voluntary offer to sell, production or
profit-sharing subject to CARP shall also be protected from conversion pending
the distribution and/or installation of the farmer beneficiaries.
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ARTICLE II
Coverage
SECTION 3. Applicability of Rules — These guidelines shall apply to all
applications for conversion, from agricultural to non-agricultural uses or to another
agricultural use, such as:
3.1. Conversions into residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and other non-
agricultural purposes;
3.2. Development into other types of agricultural activities such as livestock, poultry,
and fishpond, the effect of which is to exempt the land from CARP coverage;
3.3. Conversions into non-agricultural use other than that previously authorized; or
3.4 Conversion of agricultural lands or areas that have been reclassified by the LGU
or by way of a Presidential Proclamation, to residential, commercial, industrial, or other
non-agricultural uses on or after the effectivity of R.A. 6657 on 15 June 1988, pursuant to
Section 20 of RA 7160, and other pertinent laws and regulations, and are to be converted
to such uses. However, for those reclassified prior to 15 June 1988, the guidelines in
securing an exemption clearance from the DAR shall apply.
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5.5. Lands within an Environmentally Critical Area (ECA) or those involving the
establishment of an Environmentally Critical Project (ECP). Applications for conversion
under this sub-section shall require, apart from the standard, requirements, an
Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) which the applicant must secure from the
DENR prior to application (for ordinary applications) or prior to commencement of actual
land development (for applications involving housing projects).
The Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) Land Use Technical Committee
(PLUTC) shall participate in the deliberations when the application involves land that is
highly restricted from conversion and with an area larger than five (5) hectares, except
housing projects covered by EO-45-2001.
ARTICLE III
Procedures
SECTION 8. Criteria for Conversion. — The following criteria shall guide the
resolution of application for conversion:
8.1. Conversion may be allowed if the land subject of application is not among those
considered non-negotiable for conversion as provided in Section 4 hereof.
8.2. Conversion may be allowed, in accordance with Section 65 of RA 6657, when the
land has ceased to be economically feasible and sound for agricultural purposes or the
locality has become urbanized and the land will have a greater economic value for
residential, commercial, industrial, or other non-agricultural purposes. ICTcDA
8.3. Conversion of lands within SAFDZ, as provided in Rule 9.5.2 of DA-AO-6-1998,
shall take into account the following factors:
8.3.1. The conversion of land use is consistent with the natural expansion of the
municipality or locality, as contained in the approved physical framework and land use
plan.
8.3.2. The area to be converted in use is not the only remaining food production area of
the community.
8.3.3. The land use conversion shall not hamper the availability of irrigation to nearby
farmlands.
8.3.4. The areas with low productivity will be accorded priority for land use conversion.
8.3.5. Sufficient disturbance compensation shall be given to farmers whose livelihood are
negatively affected by the land use conversion as provided for by existing laws and
regulations.
8.4. When the agricultural land which is the subject of the application for conversion
has been acquired under RA 6657, its conversion shall be allowed only if the applicant is
the agrarian reform beneficiary thereof, and after he has fully paid his obligation as
required under Section 65 of RA 6657.
SECTION 9. Who May Apply for Conversion. — The following persons may apply
for conversion:
9.1. Owners of private agricultural lands or other persons duly authorized by the
landowner;
9.2. Beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program after the lapse of five (5) years from
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award, reckoned from the date of the issuance of the Certificate of Landownership Award
(CLOA), and who have fully paid their obligations and are qualified under these Rules, or
persons duly authorized by them; and
9.3. Government agencies, including government-owned or controlled corporations,
and LGUs, which own agricultural lands as their patrimonial property.
Land use has seen as a product of interactions between a society’s cultural background,
skill and its physical needs in one hand and the natural potential of land on the other hand
(Ram and Kolakar, 1993).
In the last decades due to the rapid urbanization, most of the metropolitan cities of the
developing countries have experienced huge increase in their population size. This trend
has increased demand for land and forcing the cities to extend outward from their original
demarcation. Together with the decentralization of industries, the shift of employment
activities from core to sub-urban areas also has resulted in marked physical expansion of
the major metropolitan cities of developing countries.
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Population growth: Population growth is one of the main causes of agricultural land
conversion. Wide employment opportunity, more income and expenditure facilities
attracts people to migrate in the study area which helps the area to get more
population as well as rapid urban expansion indirectly.
More profit: The opportunity of getting large scale land in sub-urban area is higher
than the city area. As a result, elite businessmen purchase more land to make more
profit in the near future. On the other hand, migrants from rural area have lasso’s
effort to reside in sub-urban area due to cheaper livelihood expenses.
Cheap and availability of land: In term of agricultural land use, sub-urban area is
different than City. Being cheaper and availability of agricultural land caused many
respondents to convert their agricultural land to commercial use.
Others: Beside the above causes, there are a lot of causes of agricultural land
conversion. Among them are income facilities, expenditure facilities, civic facilities,
taxation facilities etc. Moreover, another important cause of agricultural land
conversion is the expansion of the city.
Depending upon the nature of the initial and final uses of the land (Litman, 2010 b), every
agricultural land has both positive and negative consequences.
processing plants those are experiencing a direct loss when agricultural land
declines.
Changing land value: Land value is increasing gradually especially the value of
closer land to the road side than those far from road side. Commercial land value
is higher compared to the other lands. The increasing of land value is the result
from the potential of its location, together with the development of road networks.
Decreasing food production and rising food price: It is expected that loss of
agricultural land decreases agricultural food production for conversing of
agricultural land various food productions especially food grain production. From
the social point of view, most of the household members, food price is hiking in the
local market.
III. CONCLUSION
Due to uncontrolled population growth and economic development of sub-urban area,
infrastructural land has increasingly expanded which encroached upon agricultural land
more than previous. The food production is decreasing, food price rising and land fertility
decreasing and these all are the result of rapid agricultural land conversion. Infrastructural
development is the main cause of agricultural land conversion.
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References
Deng, J S. Wand, K. Hong, Y. Qi, J.G., 2009, “Spatio-temporal dynamics and evolution of
land use change and landscape pattern in response to rapid urbanization.” Landscape
Urban Plan. 92, pp. 187–198.
Ram, B. Kolarkar, A. S., 1993, “Remote Sensing Application in Monitoring Land Use
Change in Arid Rajasthan,” International Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 3, no.7.pp.23-
29.
Arlanza, R.S., Gordoncillo, P.U., Meliczek H, Palafox, J.A.F., and Peñalba, L.M. (2006).
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program: Scenarios and Options for Future
Development. German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).
DAR Administrative Order No. 01, Series of 2002: Comprehensive Rules on Land Use
Conversion.
National Land Use Act Policy Brief, National Engagement Strategy (NES) Philippines,
August 2017.
Regional Development Council (RDC) Western Visayas, Regional Land Use Committee
Resolution No. 05, Series of 2017.
Republic Act 7160, An Act Providing for A Local Government Code of 1991.
Republic Act 8435, The Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA).
Rules and Regulations Implementing R.A. 7160, The Local Government Code of 1991,
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
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