Act providing a Magna Carta of Small Farmers (Republic Act No. 7607).

The statute contains a statement of Government policy, affirming certain fundamental rights and obligations of small farmers as well as a number of Government obligations. Among small farmers' rights is that to duly elect farmers' representatives to have a seat on the board of interested national Government agencies, and to serve as members of planning and implementing units of local governments (sect. 6). The Government's obligations amount to a vast programme of socio-economic development for the benefit of small farmers, ranging from the provision of infrastructure and inputs (sects. 10-17) to the provision of support services for water resources management and irrigation (sects. 19 and 20), and from the provision of agricultural credit facilities (sects. 21 and 22) to various forms of incentives and price support (sects. 23-27). Among other things, the Act directs that a ceiling of 75 percent of commercial rates shall apply to credit rates for small farmers; and provides for the consolidation of all agricultural lending programmes of the Government in the Land Bank of the Philippines (sect. 21). "Small farmers" are defined in the Act according to the predominance of subsistence farming as a source of income and on the value of agricultural income. Provision is made for the periodic review and adjustment of the latter to reflect inflation and other pertinent factors of change (sect. 4(1)).