QUEZON CITY, January 26-28, 2022 – The Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) held a Strategic Planning Workshop which was aimed to lay out a plan for a SAAD Phase-2 from 2023-2028. Among its participants were the SAAD implementing regions, namely, CAR, IV-B, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII, as well as regions not previously covered by the program (Regions I, II, III, and IV-A).
Due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the country and the placement of the National Capital Region (NCR) and the intended venue of Baguio City under Alert Level 3, the workshop, was instead hosted virtually by the SAAD National Program Management Office (SAAD-NPMO).
Undersecretary for Operations and SAAD PSC Chair, Engr. Ariel T. Cayanan, gave his full support to the activity, explaining the contributions of the SAAD Program to poverty alleviation in its pioneer 30 provinces.
The resource persons were from the SAAD Program Steering Committee (PSC) which consisted of representatives from the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering (BAFE), Special Projects Coordination and Management Assistance (SPCMAD), Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS), and DA Accounting and Budget Divisions. Also present were resource persons from the Project Development Service (PDS) and Planning and Programming Division (PPD).
The members of the SAAD NPMO Program Monitoring Evaluation (PME) Unit presented the program’s four components: Social Preparation (Mr. Ian Kevin M. Sevilla), Production and Livelihood Interventions (Mr. Officer Kit Jasper N. Gopela), Marketing Assistance and Enterprise Development (Mr. Gio Renzo M. Caballero), and Program Management (Ms. Jacquelyn M. Rebusit).
SAAD PME Head Mr. Darwin A. Pamatmat facilitated the three-day event. He discussed the SAAD Phase-2 criteria on selection of areas and beneficiaries to cover the agriculture and fishery sectors.
Selection of the target municipalities was based mainly on PSA 2018 Poverty Incidence data and Income Classification of Municipalities as per Department of Finance (DOF) Order 23-08. This is consistent with the National Budget Call for 2023 (Department of Budget and Management National Budget Memorandum 142, s. 2022) which prioritizes 5th and 6th class municipalities, and top 1/3 of the municipalities with the highest poverty incidence.
The Regional Field Offices (RFOs) proposed to identify new municipalities within the current 30 target provinces as well as selected municipalities in provinces within covered regions but were not included by the program, namely: Abra, Benguet, and Ifugao (CAR); Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, and Romblon (MIMAROPA); Albay and Camarines Sur (Region V); Aklan, Capiz, Cebu, and Guimaras (Region VI); Cebu (Region VII); Biliran (Region VIII); Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay (Region IX); Camiguin and Misamis Oriental (Region X); Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental, and Davao Oriental (Region XI); South Cotabato (Region XII); and Agusan del Norte, Dinagat Islands, and Surigao del Norte (Region XIII).
The non-SAAD regions also reported their proposals and shared their insights to provide a better picture on how and where the SAAD Program would be implemented in their localities. The provinces they proposed are Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, and Pangasinan (Region I), Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino, (Region II), Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Zambales (Region III), and Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (CALABARZON).
SAAD-NPMO will further coordinate with the regions for their planning of target areas, beneficiaries, projects, and budgets. ###
Writer: Ian Kevin M. Sevilla, PME Officer for Special Concerns, SAAD NPMO
Photo Sources: SAAD NPMO PME Unit and IT Sub-Unit; Usec. Cayanan’s Facebook Page
