BOHOL, October 13, 2021 – A total of 390 farmers from Buenavista, Bohol received Php 14,348,300 worth of farm inputs from the Department of Agriculture (DA) – Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program to start their agricultural livelihood.

The Program provided projects on livestock (carabao), poultry (native chicken), and crop (vegetable, banana, sweet potato, corn, and peanut) production under the FY 2019 and 2020 funds (Table 1).

The interventions were turned over in a ceremony in Buenavista, Bohol on September 30. One hundred eighty carabaos and 720 native chickens were distributed under the Integrated Carabao-based Production and Native Chicken Production Projects. The crop inputs will cover 2.5 hectares (ha) for the vegetables, 35ha for corn-peanut intercropping, and 6 ha for the sweet potato and banana.

Table 1. FY 2019-2021 SAAD farm interventions turned over in Buenavista, Bohol

The projects will ensure food security and help improve productivity by reducing farm operation costs of 120 individual farmers and 6 associations with 270 members who belong to the marginalized sector in agriculture.

The associations are Cantores SAAD Farmers Association (FA), Hugpong sa mga Mag-uuma sa Brgy. Lusong, Nagkahiusang Pundok sa Mag uuma sa Nueva Granada, Nueva Montana SAAD FA, Lubang Small Scale FA, and Catigbian SAAD FA. Each group has 45 members.

Meanwhile, 40 farmers each are SAAD beneficiaries from barangays Cawag, Baluarte, and Puting Bato. They are in the process of forming their own associations.

Buenavista Mayor Dave Duallo expressed his gratitude to Secretary William Dar and to the SAAD project implementers.

He said, “I will assure that the local government unit (LGU) through the Municipal Agriculture office will help in the monitoring of the project as well as the health of the stock to ensure that there is sustainability.”

The beneficiaries were also grateful for the DA-SAAD’s timely distribution of agricultural inputs.

“Mapasalamaton ko sa gihatag sa SAAD kanako ug sa akong pamilya nga makatabang gid kaayo labi na sa kawad on karon nga pandemic, ” said SAAD beneficiary from Cantores Meliton Melencion.

(I am thankful to SAAD for giving me, and my family interventions and other farm inputs that will help us in this time of pandemic.)

“Dako ko ug pasalamat sa SAAD diin nakahatag namo ug income, ug diin naghatag namo ug seeds,ug uban pang panginahanglan sa pag panguma. Dako nakong pagpasalamat sa gobyerno, labi na ning programa sa SAAD nga nakapanghatag namo ug improvement nga makakaon ang mga kabataan nato sa mga utanon,” he added.

(I am very grateful to SAAD for giving us income, where seeds and other farm inputs were provided for our farm. I am also grateful to the government for coming up with this project (SAAD), who helped us improve and provided us with healthy and nutritious food for our youth.)

The activity was organized by SAAD Bohol staff in partnership with Buenavista LGU represented by Mayor Dave Duallo, Municipal Agriculturist Lino Divinagracia, Agriculture Provincial Coordinator (APCO) Bohol Roman Dabalos, Sangguniang Bayan (SB) Committee on Agriculture Samuel Aparece, and SB Peace and Order Rey Celocia.

SAAD Bohol targets to deliver the remaining inputs such as drugs and biologics (dewormer and vitamins for carabao) and bananas in the last week of October while 50 carabaos, vermicast, calamansi plantlets, corn seeds, and peanut seeds in November. ###

 

Writer: Jolina T. Daño, SAAD 7 Information Officer

Source: Ian H. Egam, SAAD Bohol Provincial Focal

Photo Documentation: Jay-R Gomez, Bohol IT Officer