ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE, PHILIPPINES—Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol led the turnover of agricultural interventions in Olingan, Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte, through his brainchild project called the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) on March 22 – 23, 2018.
The Farmer Associations (FAs) that received Php 3-Million worth of various agricultural inputs and machineries (including water pump – open source, hermitic cocoon, collapsible dryer case, shredder machine, rice thresher, and hand tractor) were RG Macias FA (Sindangan), Titik Indigenous People Communal Irrigator and Upland FA (Sindangan), La Libertad FA (Gutalac), Matunoy FA (Gutalac), Sim Irrigators FA (Gutalac), San Isidro Lowland Rice FA (Gutalac), Sebod FA (Roxas), Nacibac Mountain Side FA (Leon B. Postigo), Lawigan FA (Labason), Gabu FA (Labason), Labukanan FA (Kalawit), La Libertad Agricultural Producers Association (La Libertad), Sitio Tuwayon FA (La Libertad), and Diwan Vegetable FA (Dipolog City).
The SAAD Program aims to help increase the income of poor farmers coming from the poorest provinces of the country, as part of the thrusts of President Rodrigo Duterte to increase food production and reduce poverty in the Philippines.
The aim of DA-SAAD Regional Field Office IX (RFO-IX) is to build basic agriculture activities for at least a hundred and thirty (130) communities.
SAAD Provincial Coordinator (PC) Mr. Ronillo Dusaban shares their development master plan as he stressed that cutting edge of SAAD is the strength it has which are its development workers.
As an area development specialist for the longest time, PC Dusaban envisions as a contribution that is unique to the DA ‘brand’ at this time, given that the Philippines is an agricultural community. Further, he says that it is a natural thing as a community development worker to see how they can best serve the hard-to-reach people, as the outcomes are the things that money can’t buy.
As for the beneficiaries in Zamboanga del Norte, Dusaban shares that, ‘ does not give, is trying to give capacities through trainings on organization and management, technologies, as well as values formation.
“We have to take care of the people who feed the nation,” said PC Ronillo Dusaban, as he stresses the importance of an old quote about teaching a man how to fish to feed him for a lifetime.
The said turnover coincided with the 6th National Rice Technology Forum (NRTF) held in Barangay Olingan, Dipolog City, an event hosted by DA-RFO IX.
Writer: Ela Arciaga, PR & Communications Officer
Additional source/s: http://www.da.gov.ph/zamboanga-peninsula-hosts-6th-national-rice-techno-forum/
