ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE, March 3, 2022 – Social Preparation and Enterprise Development Assessment, an evaluation study on the implementation of community-based enterprises (CBEs) of the Department of Agriculture-Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) Program, in collaboration with the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) began in Zamboanga del Norte.
Simultaneous conduct of impact assessment is ongoing in six SAAD-covered provinces to gauge the present status of the program vis-a-vis its targets, with an emphasis on social preparation and enterprise-building activities. In its 5th year of implementation in Zamboanga del Norte, the province was tapped to be a source of respondents for the said study.
According to Dr. Aria Excelsis M. Orden, Project Leader and Director for Research of CLSU, the study is very timely to assess project impact on the beneficiaries and their communities. “In Zamboanga del Norte, we particularly tapped the Jose Rizal Memorial State University (JRMSU) as a collaborator starting February 7 to 11, 2022.” Dir. Orden added that CLSU has also partnered with other state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the different regions to conduct the study.
The JRMSU team headed by team leader Dr. Maria Rio Naguit conducted a series of activities that include 23 CBEs established in FY 2017-2021, covering 43 farmers associations (FAs) in 14 municipalities of the province. This involves roughly around 215 farmer-participants.
Aside from the SAAD farmers, other non-SAAD beneficiaries having a similar project or enterprise were also identified as respondents using various research methods such as Key Informants Interview (KII), Focused Group Discussion (FGD), and Survey Questionnaire to compare the income and yield of harvest of the commodity between the SAAD beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries and assess how the SAAD Program facilitated in transforming the farmer-partners’ lives.
The SAAD Local Area Coordinators facilitated the gathering of all the respondents from the same municipality in one venue. DA-SAAD Region 9 through the leadership of Regional Executive Director Rad Donn L. Cedeño is grateful and hopeful to contribute to the study that will benefit both the farmers and implementers of the project in determining the impact of SAAD if extended with a Phase 2. ###
Writer: Aimee Lou Madjus, Information Officer DA-SAAD 9
