Masaya kaming lahat kasi alam namin na yung naibigay ng SAAD ay makakatulong sa amin balang araw. Nagpapasalamat kaming lahat sa inyo.

Irene Purisima, SAAD Apayao beneficiary

Irene Purisima is one of SAAD Apayao’s beneficiaries of its poultry production project in the year 2017. She received 10 heads of high breed chicken in December 2017. But before that, she has been engaged with SAAD since April 2017, wherein she learned about it through their municipal office in Flora.

Irene and her family’s life

Before digging deeper into the status of her chickens, let’s wrap up Irene and her family’s life in Barangay Malubibit Sur, Flora, Apayao.

Thirty-five-year-old Irene and her 38-year-old husband, Angelito, have been farming for a long time now. They plant rice in a one-hectare land. They also raise animals, such as native chicken and hogs. They provide farming service to other farmers as well. They do all of these to support their four children. Without a doubt, however, their annual gross income of P40,000 barely sustains their needs as a family.

Not just receiving, but also learning

In SAAD, farmers don’t just receive agricultural interventions; they also get socially prepared by undertaking seminars, trainings, and technological demonstrations. Irene has participated in SAAD Apayao’s Farmers’ Field School, where she learned more about taking care of poultry animals.

“Nakatulong talaga yun. Natuto kami paano mag alaga ng manok, paano linisan, pakainin. Lahat natutunan namin.”

Due to a little amount of money her family earns, Irene only confines all her chickens in a makeshift, small wooden cage – which may affect the health of the animals. Fortunately, all of her chickens are in tip-top shape! Though, if ever they get sick, the Apayao local government unit (LGU) is open to giving drugs and biologics.

More good news still in store!

Since December 2017, Irene’s chickens have improved a lot. She shared that one of her chickens weigh three (3) kilograms already. Plus, she is expecting that they will lay eggs after a maximum of four months!

“Di pa nangingitlog pero inaasahan na namin yun. Hinihintay lang namin. Inaabangan na namin na makakatulong iyon. Kasi malalaki na talaga yung mga manok namin.”

And if you’re worried about the multiplication of these chickens, don’t be! That is because the organization that Irene belongs to has also been awarded one unit of incubator. Her organization is called Rural Club Incorporation MAST Farmers’ Association.

Apayao LGU, being a counterpart of SAAD Apayao, is still set to give Irene and other farmer-beneficiaries some feeds soon to support SAAD’s poultry production in the province.

Moving on… let’s meet our next farmer from Lanao del Sur.

 

 

Struggling Lanao del Sur

For the past decade, Lanao del Sur’s residents seemed to struggle more and more. It’s not just considered as the poorest among all provinces in the Philippines in 2015, it is also the home of Marawi City – the center of the clashes between government forces and the Maute Group.

In the town of Butig – also a place greatly affected by the conflict with the Mautes in 2016, lies the faces of poverty in the province. Here, we can find Tata Pumbaya, a 43-year-old farmer & vegetable vendor from Barangay Bayabao. She is also a beneficiary of the province’s SAAD Program.

Barely making ends meet

Pumbaya shared how her family depends on debts to survive when they were unable to plant crops, when rice and corn planting seasons are off, or when their crops were affected by calamities, pests, etc. In fact, she was a victim of fire and totally lost all of her family’s crops.

Worse is, Pumbaya’s family shares half of their agricultural produce income of P10,000 per harvest with the owner of the land they till and live at. Although she also plants and sells vegetables, e.g. eggplant, cabbage, tomato, and squash, as another source of livelihood, she admits it is not enough to sustain the needs of her five children.

A little hope…

Pumbaya shares how genuinely glad she is when she found out about the SAAD Program and it made her even happier when she received SAAD Lanao del Sur’s promised help on rice and corn production. With those simple rice seeds, corn seeds, and fertilizers, they gave her just a little more hope to give her family what they need.

Nagpapasalamat ako sa Diyos na dumating ang SAAD.

Tata Pumbaya, SAAD Lanao del Sur beneficiary

 

Writer: Jhomai Canlas, SAAD PR & Communications Officer