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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).

Reclassification of agricultural land refers to the act of specifying how agricultural

lands shall be utilized for non-agricultural uses such as residential, industrial, commercial,
as embodied in the land use plan, subject to the requirements and procedure for land use
conversion, undertaken by a Local Government Unit (LGU) in accordance with Section 20
of Republic Act (R.A.) 7160 and Joint Memorandum Circular (MC-54-1995) by the
Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), Department of Agriculture (DA),
Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Department of Interior and Local Government
(DILG), It also includes the reversion of non-agricultural lands to agricultural use (DAR,
2002).

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LAWS

Land classification, reclassification and conversion laws

 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.

 R.A. 8435 or the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA)

provides for the delineation of Strategic Agriculture and Fisheries Development
Zones (ZAFDZs), preparation of land use and zoning ordinance as well as penalty
for agricultural inactivity and premature conversion.

 DA Administrative Order No. 01, Series of 2017: Guidelines on the Issuance of

Certification for Land Use Reclassification provides the principles, procedures and
documentary requirements for processing and approval of land use
reclassification. It derives legal bases from pertinent sections of the Philippine
Constitution, relevant Executive Orders, R.A. 6657, R.A. 8435 and DA’s Charter
of Agricultural Lands.

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 DAR Administrative Order No. 01, Series of 2002: Comprehensive Rules on

Land Use Conversion provides for effective means of evaluating applications for
land use conversion by the DAR regional and central offices.

Agency Functions and Certifications

 Status of classification of subject land under the
Network of Protected Areas for Agricultural and
Agro-Industrial Development (NPAAAD) and
Strategic Agricultural and Fisheries Development
Zones (SAFDZ)

Department of  Status of irrigation coverage

Agriculture (DA)
 Whether or not the land has ceased to be
economically feasible and sound for agricultural
production

 Eligibility/non-eligibility for reclassification of

agricultural land

 Status of coverage under the CARP and presence

of farmers, tillers or occupants
Department of
Agrarian Reform  Recommends the grant or request for
(DAR) reclassification

 Issuance of Conversion Order

 Inclusion/non-inclusion of subject land in the
Department of
Network of Protected Area System (NIPAS)
Environment and
Natural Resources
 Environmentally Critical Area (ECA) or will involve
(DENR)
an Environmentally Critical Project (ECP)
Department of  Allocation of lands for development of agro-industrial
Trade and Industry centers
(DTI)
Housing and Land  Actual zoning and classification of subject land
Use Regulatory based on Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP)
Board (HLURB)
 Payment of obligations by the applicant landowner
Land Bank of the
of CARP-awarded lands
Philippines (LBP)

Local Government  Reclassification of lands

Units (LGUs)

Table 1. Functions of various agencies on land use reclassification and conversion

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A. THE COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM LAW

(Republic Act No. 6657, as amended)

Article XIV. Prohibited Acts and Omissions

Section B. Conversions

1. Authority to Allow Conversion of Agricultural Land for Non-agricultural Uses

a. Under Executive Order No. 129-A, Series of 1987, the Department of Agrarian
Reform is authorized to:

i. Approve or disapprove the conversion, restructuring or readjustment of

agricultural lands into non-agricultural uses; [Section 4(j)]

ii. Have exclusive authority to approve or disapprove conversion of agricultural

lands for residential, commercial, industrial and other land uses as may be
provided for by law. [Section 5(l)]

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]

b. Grounds for conversion

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

iii. Beneficiary shall have fully paid his obligation.

c. Administrative Order No. 20, Series of 1992 [Took effect on 30 December 1992]

* President Fidel V. Ramos directed the observance by all agencies and

local government units the following interim guidelines on agricultural land
use conversion.

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

* Section 36(1) of Republic Act No. 3844, as amended provides: the

agricultural lessee shall be entitled to disturbance compensation
equivalent to five years rental on his landholding.

* Displaced farmers are entitled to disturbance compensation which varies

depending on the agreement between the farmers and the landowners.

B. AGRICULTURAL LAND CONVERSION BAN ACT OF 2017

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policies.

The conversion of agricultural lands to nonagricultural uses shall be governed by the
following policies:
1. The State shall preserve irrigated and irrigable agricultural lands to ensure
food security;

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

3. Conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses shall be strictly

regulated and may be allowed only when conditions prescribed herein arc
present and complied with.

SEC. 4. Scope of the Agricultural Land Conversion Ban.

All irrigated and irrigable agricultural lands planted but not limited to rice, com,
crops, sugar, coconut, vegetables and fruit trees blocked and mapped according
to standards by the Bureau of Soil and Water Management, shall not be
converted into non-agricultural uses.

SEC. 5. Amendments to Republic Act 7160. - Section 20 of Republic Act 7160,

otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991 is hereby amended to read as
follows:

“Sec. 20. Reclassification of Lands.

(a) A city or municipality may, througli an ordinance passed by the sanggunian
after conducting public hearings for the purpose, authorize the reclassification of
agricultural lands and provide for the manner of their utilization or disposition in
the following cases:

(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

(3) WHEN THE LAND IS NOT IRRIGATED OR IRRIGABLE AND NOT

INCLUDED AMONG AGRICULTURAL LANDS IDENTIFIED BY
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ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER (AO) 20, SERIES OF 1992, AS NONNEGOTIABLE

FOR CONVERSION, AS IDENTIFIED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE (DA): PROVIDED, THAT PRIOR TO THE ENACTMENT OF
ANORDINANCE RECLASSIFYING AGRICULTURAL LANDS, THE
SANGGUNIAN CONCERNED MUST FIRST SECURE THE FOLLOWING
CERTIFICATES FROM THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES (NGAs)
CONCERNED:

(1) A certification from the DA indicating:

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;

And C. That the land has ceased to be economically feasible for

agricultural purposes;

(2) A certification from the dar that such lands are not distributed or programmed
for distribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries; and

(3) A certification from the department of environment and natural resources

(DENR) indicating that the proposed reclassification is ecologically sound

C. NATIONAL LAND USE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

Article III. Agricultural lands
Section 13. Conversion of Agricultural lands

All lands considered and identified as prime agricultural lands shall be

maintained, managed and protected for agricultural use and shall not to
subjected to any form of conversion or reclassification.

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.

Provided, further, That pending the completion of mapping activities of the

specific areas under the NPAAAD and the SAFDZs under the AFMA and their
incorporation in the National Physical Framework Plan (NPFP), the application
of conversion of these areas shall not be given due course by the appropriate
government agency.

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III. CONVERSION OF LAND TO COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL USE

(sources: Department of Agrarian Reform, Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board)

Who May Avail of the Service

1. Owners (natural or juridical person) of private agricultural lands or other persons duly
authorized by the landowner.
2. Beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program after the lapse of five (5) years from
award, reckoned from the date of the issuance of the Certificate of Land Ownership
Award (CLOA), and who have fully paid their obligations and are qualified under the rules,
or persons duly authorized by them.
3. Government agencies, including government - owned and controlled corporation, and
LGUs, which own agricultural lands as their patrimonial property

IV. LAND CONVERSION FACTORS AND REASONS

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).

Land Conversion: Conversion is a normal part of urban development in both developed

and developing world (Riebsame and others, 1996). Conversion means change to land
use from agricultural to non-agricultural or vice versa from non-agriculture to agriculture
purposes. Riebsame, et al, (1992) maintains, “The primary reason for the conversion is
that under urban uses a much higher rent is recovered. The conversion from one land use
to another is the activity most severely affecting terrestrial environments. The nature of
conversion depends on the end use of the land.” Land conversion is a phenomenon that
is almost unavoidable during economic development and population growth periods.

Edrijani (1994) stated,“Land conversion is a process by which land is changed from

agricultural to urban uses. There is a debate on whether agricultural land fringing should
be maintained or converted to other uses. This debate can be shown from both the pro-
ruralist and the pro-urbanist perspectives. The pro-urbanists argue that, “land conversion
is a logical consequence of urban growth. The decline of agricultural production, they
argue, can be solved by intensification and technological production. Hence, land
conversion is not considered as a threat in their view.”

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.

With the growth of a country’s economy, agricultural land is usually transferred to

nonagriculture as the demand for non-farm products and services. This is specially so
when the country’s population and its per capita income rise. Transfer of farm land to non-
agriculture is also needed for expansion of housing facilities in both rural and urban
localities. Such transfer is also evidenced in building infrastructures such as roads,
markets, educational institutions, electricity and industrial establishments,

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CAUSES of Land Use Conversion

 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.

 Infrastructural development: Infrastructural development is one of the important

causes closely related to population growth. In the study, emphasis putted on
settlement because settlement is the main infrastructure in the study area which
contributed more to land conversion than others. Due to the population growth, the
infrastructure builds up quickly. To fulfill the demand of extra population, the
settlement area is increasing rapidly.

 Communicative facilities: Communicative facilities are also the causes of

agricultural land conversion; it’s communicative especially road network has been
developed dramatically by including new roads and widening existing roads which
brings huge agricultural land under its networks.

 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.

IV. CONSEQUENCES ASSOCIATED WITH AGRICULTURAL LAND CONVERSION

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.

 Decreasing agricultural land: The most direct economic consequence of

decreasing agricultural land is the farmer’s loss of profits from agricultural
production. Decreasing agricultural land also results in decreasing support for
agriculture base businesses. These businesses are associated with different
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.
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 Occupational changes: In the past, most people were engaged in agriculture

allied occupation. But many had converted their agricultural land to non-agricultural
purposes. As a result, they have changed their occupation especially from farmer
to labor, businessman, driver, official job etc. which brings occupational
diversification as well as the economic change.

 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.

 Bio-diversity losses: Due to the conversion of agricultural land, farmer cultivating

HYV varieties in order to increase their production. For this, many traditional crops
are almost lost their extinct. Moreover, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and
insecticides etc are using for cultivation which is a cause of extinction of some
environment friendly faunal species.

 Environmental degradation: Due to decreasing agricultural land to fulfill food

demand, the farmers cultivate their land intensively and use chemical fertilizer,
pesticide and other poisoned elements. This is why, water, air, land and other
elements of environment are being polluting day by day. Agricultural chemicals
such as nitrates can threaten living things in farm fields and watercourses and can
enter into drinking water reservoirs. Land are degraded by all of the products said
as well as the environment which degrading day by day.

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.

Riebsame, W. E. H. Gosnell, and D. M. Theobald., 1996, “Land use and landscape

change in the Colorado mountains, I: theory, scale, and pattern.” Mountain Research and
Development 16 (4): 395-405

Riebsame., W. E. and Singh, R.B. ed., 1992, “Dynamics of Mountain Geosystems,”

Ashish Pub, New Delhi.

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.

Land Use Reclassification and Land Use Conversion in the Philippines:

Policy and Research Service (PRS)
Policy, Planning and Research Office (PPRO)
Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)

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).

DA Administrative Order No. 01, Series of 2017: Guidelines on the Issuance of

Certification for Land Use Reclassification

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 6657, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).

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).