JARO, ILO-ILO CITY, PHILIPPINES—The Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) is conducting a series of Multi-Year Planning (MYP) workshops for its 2019 provinces, holding the activity for Region VI at the Eon Centennial Resort Hotel and Water Park, Alta Tierra, Jaro, Ilo-ilo City on June 18-20, 2018.

The activity was led by Regional Executive Director (RED) for DA-Regional Field Office (RFO) VI, Ms. Remelyn R. Recoter, DA-RFO VI Field Operations Chief, Mr. Rene B. Famoso, and SAAD NPMO Program Director Bernadette “SJ” F. San Juan.

RED Recoter challenged the participants coming from respective Region VI Local Government Units (LGUs) to think of organizing programs that are comprehensive and resilient to climate change, supported by Director SJ by encouraging them to not let go until the farmer-beneficiaries are finally out of the poverty threshold—leaving them with industries once the SAAD Program is confident to let the communities stand on their own.

Also present to critique the outputs are Clark N. Melendres, DA-RFO 6 Agriculturist II and Coordinating Officer, and Mr. Darwin A. Pamatmat, Ms. Karla Borromeo, and Ms. Jacquelyn Rebusit, DA-SAAD NPMO staff.

As the participants were tasked to fill up the MYP form, Pamatmat explains that a common confusion encountered in filling the form is in the identification of the projects. The timely activity aims to help the participants accurately classify the interventions, whether these may fall under or related to Production, Post-Harvest, Processing or Marketing.

The MYPs for FY2020-2022 aim to set a direction for the Program towards the attainment of its overall objective, aside from becoming the basis for the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in the annual approval of DA-SAAD Program Plan and Budget proposal.

Negros Occidental, Bohol, and Antique are the three (3) SAAD-covered provinces in Visayas for year 2019, chosen based on the 2015 Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) poverty statistics report.

Writer: Ela Arciaga, SAAD NPMO PR & Communications Officer