DAVAO CITY, March 6, 2020 – The Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program, represented by Deputy Director Ulysses Lustria, Jr., joined the Department of Agriculture (DA) –  Special Projects Coordination and Management Assistance Division’s (SPCMAD) Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Year-End Assessment for all the department’s special projects from March 3 to 6, 2020.

SPCMAD, led by Chief U-Nichols Manalo, aims to provide information and assistance related to the different DA foreign-assisted and locally-funded projects (FAPs and LFPs).

SAAD, an LFP that is funded by the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), participated in the four-day assessment meeting, which was also hosted by the program.

The meeting’s purpose is to evaluate the overall performance of the DA’s FAPs and LFPs in terms of their cumulative, current year, and continuing physical and financial accomplishments.

Deputy Director Lustria, Jr. reported that the SAAD Program had a 92.75% obligation rate and 58.42% disbursement rate as of December 31, 2019.

As of February 2020, SAAD has implemented 237 livelihood projects in FY 2019 (106 were completed and 131 are currently on-going), covering 30 priority provinces.

The 30 provinces are Apayao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Occidental Mindoro, Catanduanes, Mabaste, Sorsogon, Negros Occidental, Antique, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Bohol, Eastern Samar, Samar, Northern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Zamboanga del Norte, Lanao del Norte, Bukidnon, Misamis Occidental, Compostela Valley, Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, Sulu, Maguindanao, and Lanao del Sur.

The assessment also served as an avenue for all the participating DA offices, such as the Planning and Monitoring Service, Project Development Service, Financial and Management Service, to cascade the new directives, policies, and guidelines of the Agriculture department. ###

Writer: Jhomai Canlas, SAAD Public Relations and Communications Head