DA reviews midyear
accomplishments, eyes 8 Caraga farmers enterprise by 2022
BUTUAN CITY -- "The DA-SAAD is result-oriented. Meeting our target deliveries is just a portion of it. At the end of the day, our goal is to improve the lives of our farmer-partners,” emphasized Regional Executive Director Abel James I. Monteagudo of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Caraga during the mid-year review and assessment of the program.
In his message, Dir. Monteagudo elaborated on the yardstick for assessing the program’s impact.
“SAAD should be able to touch the lives of our farmers. Dapat may pagbabago sa buhay nila [There should be an improvement in their living status]," he said.
The DA-SAAD Caraga, after establishing crop and animal production projects for its 32 farmers’ associations in 2019, and guiding the same groups in sustaining their projects since 2020, has entered its enterprise management phase this year.
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Among the
accomplishments reported by the program area coordinators in Agusan del Sur
(AdS) and Surigao del Sur (SdS) included the conduct of various crop and animal
production and management training within the first half of 2021.
In AdS, a series of training on abaca pre-and post-harvest handling were conducted among farmers in Veruela, San Luis, Rosario, and Talacogon. San Luis farmers also underwent training on nursery management while Rosario farmers learned about chicken and cacao production.
Meanwhile, in SdS, select farmers in the municipality of Lingig participated in hands-on training on treating goats. Bislig farmers also zeroed in on good animal husbandry practices and chicken production.
Select farmers in Bayabas were also trained on peanut production, which was followed up with a farm visit. Carmen farmers, through the assistance of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), were also trained on product packaging, labeling, and pricing of camote chips.
In AdS,
the DA-SAAD livelihood projects are mostly crop-related, while Surigao del Sur
is dominantly animal production. This year, to diversify the farm produce of
the beneficiaries, some associations have also ventured into side projects,
such as the abaca production of P-7 Panaosawon Farmers Association the peanut
production of Balete Corn Growers’ Association in Bayabas, SdS.
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Since
2019, the DA-SAAD Program has reached 1,016 individuals who are now members of
the 32 beneficiary associations from AdS and SdS. From the said associations,
eight are eyed to become established agripreneurs in 2022.
The FAs included in Agusan del Sur are the Cosep People’s Organization (Rosario), Cecelia Abaca Corn Planters (San Luis), and Candiis SAAD Farmers Association (Veruela), all managing the SAAD-funded native chicken production projects.
Meanwhile, in SdS, the Cancavan Corn Growers Association (Carmen), Balete Chicken Growers Association (Bayabas), Burboanon Native Chicken Raisers’ Association (Bislig City), and Rajah Cabung-suan Farmers Association (Lingig) are expected to continue selling chickens to their target markets, further solidifying their entrepreneurship.
Members of the Mag-uumang Manobo sa Hinapoyan Association (Carmen), as well, are expected to mass produce camote chips next year.
As part of its targets for the CY 2021, the DA-SAAD Program has allotted Php 1.6 million for capability building of its farmer-partners. (๐๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ท๐ด-๐๐ด๐ด๐ท ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐/PIA Caraga)
