BACKGROUND The Philippines, one of the largest island-groups in the world with 7,100 islands and islets, is strategically located within the area of nations that sweeps southeast from Mainland Asia across the equator to Australia.

Its boundaries are formed by three large bodies of water: on the west and north by the South China Sea; on the east by the Pacific Ocean; and on the south by the Celebes Sea and coastal waters of Borneo. The total land area of the Philippines is 300 thousand square kilometers or 30 million hectares. It constitutes two percent of the total land area of the world and ranks 57th among the 146 countries of the world in terms of physical size. The Philippines, advocates the archipelago doctrine, as such it gains exclusive to all resources living or non-living in and at the bottom of an area of about 276,000 square nautical miles. The Philippines is divided into three major island groups: Luzon, with an area of 141 thousand square kilometers; Mindanao, with an area of 102 thousand square kilometers; and Visayas, with an area of 57 thousand square kilometers.

LAND RESOURCES Land Area The Philippines is an agricultural country with a land area of 30 million hectares, 47% of which is agricultural land. In the Philippines, prime agricultural lands are located around the main urban and high population density areas. Land resources in the country are generally classified into forest lands and alienable and disposable lands. A total of 15.8 million hectares were classified into forest lands, and 14.2 million hectares are alienable and disposable lands. Out of the 14.2 million hectares alienable and disposable lands, 93% or 13 million hectares are classified as agricultural lands. Land Distribution The Total area devoted to agricultural crops is 13 million hectares. This is distributed among food grains, food crops and non-food crops. Food grains occupied 31% (4.01 million hectares), food crops utilized 52% (8.33 million hectares) while 17% (2.2 million hectares) were used for non-food crops. For food grains, the average area utilized by corn was 3.34 million while rice occupied 3.31 million hectares. Of the total area under food crops, coconut accounted for the biggest average harvest area of 4.25 million hectares. Sugarcane with 673 thousand hectares; Industrial crops with 591 thousand hectares; 148 thousand hectares for fruits; 270 thousand hectares for vegetables and rootcrops; 404 thousand hectares for pasture and 133 hectares for cutflower. According to land capability, 78.31% of the alienable and disposable land are prime agricultural areas, 6.1 million hectares are highly suitable for cultivation.