DAVAO REGION, December 29, 2023 – The Department of Agriculture – Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) Davao Region conducts its Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) of its beneficiary areas for 2025, with 4 provinces and 11 municipalities assessed so far. 

The municipalities assessed as of writing are Kiblawan in Davao del Sur;  Talaingod in Davao del Norte; Malita, Don Marcelino, Jose Abad Santos, and Sarangani in Davao Occidental; and Boston Baganga, Cateel, Tarragona, and Governor Generoso in Davao Oriental.

PRA is a bottom-up approach to social preparation and project development, incorporating farmers’ local knowledge in streamlining projects and their implementation. After training provincial and municipal SAAD focals on PRA in October, the team set out for the assessment by the start of December. PRA tools were used to determine physical, biological, and financial characteristics, historical background, and problem causes and possible solutions.

Three (3) teams of 3-4 members from SAAD Davao Region plus the areas’ respective Provincial Agriculture, Provincial Veterinarian, and Municipal Agriculture Offices’ representatives set out on a month-long, separate schedule for the assessment. The appraisal took 2 days, with the first 3 tools done on the first day, and the last tool on the second one. In some areas, the local Revitalized Pulis sa Barangay Program aided in the coordination of the activity.

The program plans to conduct PRA in all of its existing areas of implementation in 4 provinces of the region comprising 14 municipalities. The remaining 4 municipalities of San Isidro,  are either undergoing assessment this week or will be assessed next year.

“We always try to emphasize that the SAAD program is a specialized program, the work is hard, didto jud ta sa suok mudalag serbisyo, ang kinahanglan hatagan sa SAAD, mao ang mga dili mahatagan (we give services to far-flung areas, those that needs to be given services otherwise not reached by banner programs),”  Regional Executive Director Abel James Monteagudo said.

Preliminary Results

While PRA allows farmers to analyze their situation and establish a common perspective to solve problems, the duty of streamlining the findings to create a lasting solution falls into the hands of both project implementers and beneficiaries. 

In SAAD Davao Region’s case, most of the areas conducted with PRA presented the same major problems, including but not limited to unavailability of good quality seeds and/or seedlings, high prices of agricultural inputs, and pest infestation. 

“Kani atong ginahimo nga (What we’ve been doing with the) PRA, the results will be our reference based kung unsay naa nga mga (on the area’s) existing commodities and available resources. Kani atong ginabuhat (We do this) in hopes of planning a sustainable generating livelihood project for the communities,” Joed Orig, SAAD Davao Region Community Development Officer II, remarked.

Participatory Rural Appraisal

Recognizing the bearing of local expertise in designing projects is one of the most crucial ways to improve local production capacity. SAAD, in Phase 2 of implementation, requires PRA in its project implementation to better to streamline production projects for farmers in far-flung areas. ###

Writer: James Brian R. Flaga, DA-SAAD Davao Region Information Officer
Photos by: Ronell T. Tangonan, DA-SAAD Davao Region Information Officer