True to the essence of the Department of Agriculture’s newest program, the Special Area for Agricultural Development or SAAD, which is a Visayan word meaning “promise”, the interventions to the farmer-partners in Bicol were recently distributed at their doorsteps.

In the province of Catanduanes, a total of 286 farmers from the most marginalized sector of the towns of Bagamanoc, Baras, Bato, Gigmoto, Panganiban, and San Miguel received various interventions.

After the completion of the series of training on Upland Rice Production, some 70 upland dwellers received rice seeds at one sack each along with complete fertilizer. The pre-selected farmers are cultivating an average landholding of one hectare.

Also in Catanduanes, 56 groups received packets of vegetable seeds which include okra, pechay, bush and pole sitao and ampalaya.

Meanwhile, in Masbate, a total of 2,300 bags of upland rice, 1,270 bags of complete fertilizers and 430 bags corn seeds were distributed to the pre-selected farmers from the municipalities of Esperanza, Balud, Pio V Corpus, and Mandaon.

In the province of Sorsogon, 550 bags of upland rice seeds were distributed to the farmer-partners in the municipalities of Donsol (75 farmers), Pilar (187 farmers), Magallanes (51 farmers), Juban (93 farmers), Sta. Magdalena, (70 farmers) and Matnog (74 farmers).

Earlier, the SAAD area coordinators in the three provinces conducted a house-to-house interview of the farmers to assess their needs and available resources as well as identify the potential areas where the project can have the greatest impact.

Having identified the needs and available resources of the beneficiaries, a number of training programs on upland rice and vegetable production were conducted in coordination with the DA RFO 5 banner programs to prepare the mindset of the farmers and equip them with the necessary skills to sustain the projects.

By Lovella P. Guarin, DA-RFO 5 RAFIS writer