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Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP): Time to let go

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  • Raul V. Fabella

    (UP School of Economics, National Academy of Science and Technology)

Abstract

This paper revisits the record of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in the Philippines over its quartercentury existence. By 2014, it shall have accomplished 99 percent of its targetÑan impressive success for a government program. As a program to advance the economic welfare of farmers, however, it has accomplished the opposite of its stated goals. Productivity in coconut and sugar has fallen drastically, and poverty incidence among beneficiaries in agrarian-reform communities is even higher than among farmers in general. CARP and CARPER (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with Reforms) have created a new social class: the landed poor. The design and implementation flaws that brought about this result are explored, including carpÕs suppression of the market for land assets and its rigid five-hectare landownership ceiling, which led to the demise of the legal rural financial market and the flight of private capital. The paper argues for a shift in the policy focus henceforth from equity to efficiency, and the revival of markets for rural output and credit by, among others, lifting landownership limits for productive farmers and publicly registered corporations.

Suggested Citation

  • Raul V. Fabella, 2014. "Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP): Time to let go," Philippine Review of Economics, University of the Philippines School of Economics and Philippine Economic Society, vol. 51(1), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:phs:prejrn:v:51:y:2014:i:1:p:1-18
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    File URL: http://pre.econ.upd.edu.ph/index.php/pre/article/view/900/800
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    Cited by:

    1. Roumasset, James A., 2024. "The Microeconomics of Agricultural Development: Risk, Institutions, and Agricultural Policy," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), vol. 21(AJAD 20th), October.
    2. Llanto, Gilberto M. & Geron, Maria Piedad S. & Badiola, Jocelyn Alma R., 2016. "Comprehensive Study on Credit Programs to Smallholders," Discussion Papers DP 2016-48, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    3. Toby C. Monsod & Sharon A. Piza, 2014. "Time to let go of CARP? Not so fast," Philippine Review of Economics, University of the Philippines School of Economics and Philippine Economic Society, vol. 51(1), pages 19-27, June.
    4. Gary B. Teves, 2014. "Improving Credit Access for the Food and Agriculture Sector through Enhanced Implementation of Existing Policies and New Strategies," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201415, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    5. Dy, Kenneth Bicol & Chau, Kwong Wing, 2023. "Compulsory land redistribution from the perspective of the theory of price control," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    land reform; equity; land markets; credit markets; Coase theorem;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q14 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Finance
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

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