"The benefits are clear, but we need specifics."
Quezon City has passed an ordinance that exempts land owners from the idle land tax if they convert their property into urban farms—a timely move that could boost food production during a pandemic.
The impact of this push to encourage the development of urban farms could be substantial for the largest city in Metro Manila. With a land area of more than 160 square kilometers, Quezon City has an abundance of idle land that can be put to productive use, officials say.
Some questions remain, however.
To qualify for the exemption, the urban farms must bear produce for public or personal consumption and the land must be used for agriculture for three years. But the ordinance is silent on how much produce is require and how the actual land use will be monitored. Moreover, the requirement that the land be used as an urban farm for three years suggests that their owners will get a tax break only after the third year. If this is in fact the case, what is the incentive for turning a vacant lot into an urban farm for the first two years?
The Quezon City Task Force on Food Security, in coordination with the City Assessor’s Office, is supposed to issue a certification to qualified land owners before they pay their real property tax. Clearly, it will have to answer these questions before it begins certifying the new urban farms.
Other questions need to be answered.
What, in more specific terms, does this ordinance seek to achieve? How can we gauge its success or failure? How much idle land, in concrete terms, does “an abundance” mean? How much of these properties belong to the national government? Or the city government? And what percentage of idle lands does the city hope to convert to urban farms?
Is there a social amelioration aspect to these urban farms? Will some of the produce go to feeding the poor? If so, who will pay for the cost of operating the urban farms?
The city government says it has entered into a partnership with the Department of Agriculture to promote urban gardening as a means to ensure stability of food supply and help alleviate poverty within the communities. This is all well and good, but we look forward to specifics about how this partnership ties in with the new urban farms that are supposed to spring up from the city’s idle lands.
Quezon City’s urban farming initiative is a good first step, but a tax break alone will not ensure success.
On a national scale, the Senate is deliberating a bill that also promotes the use of urban agriculture in the country’s cities. Here, too, tax breaks are only part of the larger equation that includes education, government participation and research.
The benefits of urban farming are clear—we just need to go about attaining them in an organized, methodical, and logical manner.
