Availability of idle lands. Xxxxxx et al notes that the abundance of idle agricultural lands in Mindanao was one of the reasons why the region was the logical choice to host plantation farms many decades ago. The establishment of these plantations helped carve out productive farms from previously unproductive lands. The possibility of transforming idle and marginal lands into productive farms and, in the process, generate incomes and employment for rural communities has also been cited by the Xxxxxx administration as one of the rationale’s for its drive to generate private sector agricultural land investments. Concerns regarding the possible impact of these investments of food production were dismissed on the ground that the lands that will be tapped for agricultural investments are idle and marginal and, hence, will only serve to add value to current agricultural output. Xxxxxx notes that the Philippines has 30 million hectares composed of forest lands, and alieanable and disposable lands.14 Of these, 8.8 million hectares are idle and can be tapped for the cultivation of biofuel feedstock and other crops.15 Under the MTADP, bulk of government’s original target area for agribusiness expansion refers in non-food crops, namely abaca, rubber, coconut and tobacco. In particular, some 1.4 hectares million hectares of idle lands were earmarked for non- food production while the rest were targeted for high value crops, such as pineapple, pili, sugar, coffee, mango durian, banana, vegetables, onion and garlic, among others, as well as major agricultural outputs, namely rice, corn, livestock and fisheries. However, the biofuels market has yet to make its presence felt in the Philippines at the time that the MTADP was being formulated. Hence, this was not yet configured into the plan. At the same time, trends in agricultural land investments, which, as mentioned earlier, was driven to a large extent by the emerging biofuels market as well as by speculations and uncertainties revolving around food production and supply have not yet been duly observed and were also not factored into the process of drawing up the target areas for the development of idle lands.
