Aison Alejandro Sy Garcia Philippines

 Increase of Private Investments in Agriculture  Most first world countries and going to third world countries for agricultural land for supply for food and raw materials  Increasing instances of landlessness and displacements due to “commoditization“ of land  VGLT, UNIDROIT and RAI are mainly voluntary

 42 years of Agrarian Reform ◦ land redistribution  Average of 1 hectare farm owned by a family  Multinational investors for agriculture are coming in but there is a farmland ownership ceiling of 5 hectares per individual  Not all farmers are capacitated to negotiate on equal footing which resulted to iniquitous agribusiness arrangements  How to sustain inclusive development in rural areas?

 Unfair contracts (no voice, skewed distribution of income)  Provisions of the contracts are not understood  Problematic implementation  No recourse to an effective dispute resolution  Lack of capacity of Government and NGOs to support the farmers in agribusiness contracts

 Agrarian Reform = (LTI+SSD) x SIBS  Where: LTI – Land Tenure Improvement SSD – Support Services Delivery SIBS - Social Infrastructure Building and Strengthening

 Pre formulated provisions with “fine prints”  “Take it or leave it”  Pressure and undue influence  Divide and conquer

 Parties have full information and they freely decide on it  Reasonable Term, Price, Delivery and sharing of profit  Sustainable

 Ensuring Good Faith in negotiation (incentives?)  International standards on responsible agricultural investments

 Information Access vs. Trade Secrets  Legal and Economic Empowerment  Government’s investment in infrastructure adds value to the smallholders produce

 Rule of law and Strengthen Relationship  Correcting bargaining/starting positions  strengthens the bargaining and negotiating position of smallholders to enter into agribusiness contracts  Preparatory activities to ensure good faith contracting (due diligence, contract review, etc.)  Empowering smallholder to negotiate

 Enterprise Lawyering Teams  72 provinces with 3 members in each province  2 trainings  41 female, 47 male (only 30% are lawyers)

 Industry Profile and Value Chain  Negotiation  Entering into Contract and crafting the provisions  Dealing with problematic contracts  Dispute Resolution  Success factor: sharing of best practices from industry players and government intervention

Better contracts, empowered farmers, happy investors  “Checkered” Farms ◦ Started with lease agreement and negotiated for a growership with a price of 2.5 $ per box ◦ Renegotiated because economic conditions have changed and got 4$ per box “at packing plant” contract ◦ Able to build their packing plant and operate a profitable banana business  Sumifru Contracts ◦ 4.5$ per box

 Buy-in from the stakeholders ◦ 1. smallholders ◦ 2. lawyers ◦ 3. Other government offices ◦ 4. Non-government organizations  Strengthening capacity of the current “Enterprise Lawyering” Teams  Legal framework for smallholder agriculture is lacking ◦ Juridical entity, taxation, incentives, technology

 Formulate Legal and Policy Framework for Smallholder Agribusiness incorporating relevant international principles and standards  Strengthen negotiation fundamentals of smallholders by conducting more “enterprise lawyering” trainings and creation of IEC materials  Create an office on responsible agricultural investments which reviews agribusiness contracts and provides enterprise lawyering services to both investors and farmers