Collective Land Ownership Empowers Farmers to Choose Their Pathways to Recovery and Resilience: A Case Study of How Land Rights Security Improves Sustainable Rice Farming and Increases Climate Mitigation in Upland Communities in Passi City, Iloilo, Philippines
This case study demonstrates how secure land rights, especially when backed by a land title, can hasten the livelihood recovery of farmers who have lost everything because of a climate-induced disaster. The farmers of Passi City already possessed a collective land title — the next best thing to individual land titles — when one of the most destructive typhoons to hit the Philippines laid waste to their land and livelihood in November 2013. Unusually for typhoon-affected communities, the Passi farmers bounced back quickly from their losses on the strength of their collective ownership of the land. Having previously been trained in organic agriculture by a non-government organization, the farmers resumed growing organic rice. With no landlord to dictate to them, the Passi farmers were able to make their own decisions on how and what to plant. Through a series of strategic decisions and actions, the farmers not only rebuilt their livelihood but succeeded in having their rice certified as organic and sold at a premium price in mainstream markets. Climate resilience in the case of the Passi farmers entailed the freedom to choose and pursue their own pathway to recovery.
