To gather input, feedback and perspectives from farmers and other relevant stakeholders involved in agricultural activities, the Department of Agriculture – Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) Caraga, in partnership with the provincial and municipal agriculture offices of Agusan del Norte and Surigao del Norte conducted a simultaneous Stakeholders’ Consultation Meeting from February 26 to 28.

The activity was attended by members of various farmers’ associations (FAs), including Balangbalang Farmers Organization (BAFO) and San Antonio Farmers Organization (SAFO) from Remedios T. Romualdez (RTR), Agusan del Norte; Karihatag Poultry Raisers Organization (KPRO) and Hanagdong Lakatan Farmers Association (HaLaFa) from Malimono, Surigao del Norte; and Tagbayani SAAD Farmers Association (TagSAFA) and Biyabid SAAD Farmers Association (BiSAFA) from Sison, Surigao del Norte, focused on discussing the FY 2024 livelihood projects and interventions (Table 1), as well as updates on ongoing and implemented projects. 

By engaging farmers and stakeholders, these meetings helped identify challenges, opportunities, and potential solutions to improve farming practices, address issues affecting farmers, and promote sustainable agricultural development.

Table 1. FY 2024 budget allocation under GAA for 8 FAs in Surigao del Norte and Agusan del Norte

To choose the right projects for the FAs, they conducted a Beneficiary Needs Assessment (BNA) with support from local and regional teams. They also checked the farmers’ production area to see if it was suitable for the projects the FAs wanted to pursue.

“Planning within the FAs is an integral part in making the provided SAAD projects successful and sustainable and become profitable in the long run,” said Noli Orog, SAAD Provincial Coordinator for Agusan del Norte, inciting that strategically setting the targeted goals of an FA is important in bridging more partnerships in the future.

 FY 2023 livelihood project status

As SAAD looked back and reassessed the agricultural interventions from the FY2023 implementation, the banana inputs of BAFO, HaLaFA, and TagSAFA, and the abaca inputs of SAFO and BiSAFA were already planted and are now in vegetative stage waiting for its maturity and productivity.

Meanwhile, KPRO was already able to profit from their layer production project through community egg selling that is well received in their community that makes for a good start in exposing their FA in market linking.

FY 2025 Plan and Budget Proposal

Additionally, the consultation involved presenting the FY 2025 Plan and Budget Proposal to the FAs, showing them the agricultural interventions that they agreed on. Part of the proposal is the future provision of hauling vehicles to the FAs to address the transportation problems of their agricultural commodities.

In its second year of Phase 2 implementation, SAAD Caraga is concentrating on setting up production projects to develop market systems for target enterprises across all covered municipalities. Hence, stakeholders’ consultation meetings are crucial in assessing the FAs’ productivity. This is also an avenue to address issues and concerns that are relevant and important for the implementation process and the establishment of community-based enterprises and other related matters for the projects and the program. 

The Program will continue to support these FAs until they can fully establish a Community-Based Enterprise from their current partially established ones. ###

Writer: Sean D. Belen, DA-SAAD Caraga Regional Information Officer