Section 3Sec./Art. 3

Definition of Terms. As used in thisAct:

(a)Agrarian Reform Beneficiary (ARB)refers to a farmer who was granted land under Presidential Decree No. 27, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988and Republic Act No. 9700 or the "Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms"and a regular farmworker who is landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement, who benefited from the redistribution of land, regardless of crops or fruits produced, to include the totality of factors and support services designed to lift the economic status of the beneficiary and all other alternative arrangements to the physical distribution of lands, such as production or profit sharing, labor administration, and the distribution of shares of stock which will allow the beneficiary to receive a just share of the fruits of the lands one tilled.

The term shall also include registered ARBs' cooperatives/associations/other farm groups, respectively endorsed as comprising of ARBs by the nearest office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), as well as ARB households;

(b)Agrarian Reform Community (ARC)refers to a barangay or a cluster of barangays primarily composed of and managed by ARBs which is organized and willing to undertake the integrated development of an area and/or their organizations/cooperatives;

(c)Agri-Businessrefers to agriculture and fishery-related activities that put farmers, fisherfolk, processors, distributors, and consumers within a system that produces, processes, transports, markets, and distributes agricultural and fishery products. It encompasses input production, farm and fishery operations and management, equipment and supplies manufacturing, food/non-food processing, trading, and retailing;

(d)Agri-Tourism, also referred to as "Farm Tourism" under Republic Act No. 10816, or the "Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016,"refers to the practice of attracting visitors and tourists to farm areas for production, educational and recreational purposes. It involves any agricultural- or fishery-based operation or activity that brings to a duly-accredited farm tourism camp, visitors, tourists, farmers and fisherfolk who want to be educated and trained on farming and its related activities;

(e)Agricultural Lesseerefers to any person who, with or without help from one's immediate farm household, cultivates the land owned by another for a certain price in money, in produce, or in both;

(f)Agricultural or fisheries householdrefers to a household with at least one (1) member of the household who is a farmer, a fisherman, an ARB, a settler, an agricultural lessee, an amortizing owner, a farmworker, a fishworker, an owner-cultivator, a compact farmer, or a tenant farmer;

(g)Agricultural Value Chain (AVC)refers to a set of actors/players, such as farmers, fisherfolk, traders, suppliers, processors, aggregators, who make up a linked sequence of value-adding activities undergone by an agricultural product when converted from raw material to the final form it is presented to the consumers;

(h)Agricultural Value Chain Financing (AVCF)refers to the financial products and services made available to an AVC following the appropriate evaluation of the AVC's composition, goal, size and capacity;

(i)Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program (AMCFP)refers to the umbrella credit/financing program of the government for the agriculture and fisheries sector created under Republic Act No. 8435, or the "Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997";

(j)Amortizing ownersrefer to landowners who amortize payment for the land to a private individual or to the State;

(k)Basic Deposit Account (BDA)refers to interest- or non-interest-bearing account designed to promote financial inclusion;

(l)Cash agentrefers to a third party entity contracted by a bank to accept and disburse cash on its behalf, and facilitate self-service deposits, withdrawals and fund transfers, bills payment and other banking services, as allowed under Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) rules and regulations;

(m)Compact farmersrefer to those farmers with adjoining farms operating as a single unit under one (1) management, farm plan and budget;

(n)Farmerrefers to a natural person whose primary livelihood is cultivation of land or the production of agricultural crops, agro-forest products, or livestock, either by oneself, or primarily with the assistance of their immediate farm household, whether the land is owned by them or by another person under a leasehold or share tenancy agreement or arrangement with the owner thereof;

(o)Farmworkerrefers to a natural person who renders service for value as an employee or laborer in an agricultural enterprise or farm regardless of whether the compensation is paid on a daily, weekly, monthly orpakyawor contracted project. The term includes an individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, a pending agrarian dispute who has not obtained a substantially equivalent and regular farm employment;

(p)Farmers' cooperativesrefer to cooperatives composed primarily of small agricultural producers, farmers, farmworkers, or other ARBs who voluntarily organize themselves for the purpose of pooling land, manpower, technological, financial or other economic resources, and operate on the principle of "one member, one vote." A juridical person may be a member of a cooperative, with the same rights and duties as a natural person;

(q)Farmer's and fisherfolk organizations or associationsrefer to farming or fishing cooperatives, associations or corporations duly registered with appropriate government agencies and which are composed primarily of small agricultural producers, farmers, farmworkers, ARBs, and fisherfolk who voluntarily join together to form business enterprises or non-business organizations which they themselves own, control and patronize;

(r)Farm-to-Market roadrefers to a road linking the agriculture and fisheries production sites, coastal landing point and post-harvest facility to the market and arterial road or highway;

(s)Financial servicesrefer to services extended by banks, and financial institutions such as credit/lending, deposits, rediscounting, investments, and insurance;

(t)Fisherfolkrefers to people directly or personally and physically engaged in catching and processing fishery and/or aquatic resources, and in fish farming or aquaculture whether the fish specie is grown in tanks, fishponds or other types of enclosures;

(u)Fishworkerrefers to a person whether or not regularly employed in commercial fishing and related industries, whose income is either from wages, profit sharing or stratified sharing basis, including those working in fishpens, fish corrals/traps, fishponds, prawn farms, sea farms, salt beds, fish ports, fishing boats or trawlers, or fish processing and/or packing plants, but excluding administrators, security guards and overseers;

(v)Green projectsrefer to green economic activities and projects. Aside from activities that promote climate change adaptation and mitigation, green projects also cover environmental and efficiency improvements, natural capital preservation and resource mobilization;

(w)Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME)refers to any business activity or enterprise defined as such under existing laws;

(x)Newly Established Bankrefers to a domestic or foreign bank without banking presence in the Philippines prior to the issuance of its certificate of authority to operate. It shall not include banks that have been formed through the acquisition, purchase of ownership of the voting stock of an existing domestic bank or the merger or consolidation of banks;

(y)Owner-cultivatorsrefer to natural persons who own lands by purchase, inheritance, or land distribution by the State. Owner-cultivators can operate the farm themselves, supervise wage labor or delegate operations to farmers;

(z)Post-harvest Activitiesrefer to threshing, drying, milling, grading, storing, and handling of produce and such other activities of similar nature such as stripping, winnowing, chipping and washing;

(aa)Post-harvest Facilitiesrefer to threshers, moisture meters, dryers, weighing scales, milling equipment, fish ports, fish landings, ice plants and cold storage facilities, processing plants, warehouses, buying stations, market infrastructure and transportation facilities, and such other facilities supporting post-harvest activities;

(bb)Public Rural Infrastructurerefers to infrastructure in rural communities such as highways, streets, bridges, tunnels, railways, railroads, transport systems, ports, airports, hydropower projects, canals, dams, irrigation, government buildings and housing projects, public schools, public hospitals, public health centers, public markets, slaughterhouses, warehouses, solid waste management, sewerage, flood control, drainage, dredging and other similar infrastructure projects;

(cc)Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture(RSBSA)refers to an electronic compilation of basic information on farmers, farmworkers, and fisherfolk.1a⍵⍴h!1 The database, which includes the profile of farmers, farmworkers and fisherfolk, and additional information such as farm parcels and fisheries, among others, is mainly used to help government planners and policymakers in formulating policies for agricultural development;

(dd)Rural Communityrefers to an area that is defined as such by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA);

(ee)Rural Financial Institution (RFI)refers to any financial institution established and is operating in a rural community;

(ff)Settlersrefer to persons who range from the forest-clearing pioneers, including indigenous people, with a subsistence economy to the better equipped and more experienced farmers;

(gg)Sustainable Financerefers to any form of financial product or service which integrates environmental, social and governance criteria into business decisions that support economic growth and provide lasting benefit for both clients and society while reducing pressures on the environment. This also covers green finance which is designed to facilitate the flow of funds towards green economic activities and climate change mitigation and adaptation projects; and

(hh)Tenant Farmerrefers to one who cultivates another's land under a sharing or leasehold agreement.