Sec. Dar sees SAAD expansion

July 31, 2021 Provincial

An expansion of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) program may soon extend to other provinces in the country following the positive impact it has that may be categorized by the national government as among the marginalized sectors of the agriculture and fisheries sectors needing support from the government.
In his virtual press briefing with members of the media at the Department of Agriculture Cordillera Regional Field Office (DACARFO) after the 6th State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte at the house of Representatives, DA Secretary William Dar noted the congressional actions currently being done by members of congress for the expansion of SAAD in other areas of the country.
“I would like to inform the public that it is congress now who is asking for an expansion of SAAD to more provinces because they have seen the impact that the SAAD project has given to the beneficiaries in other SAAD identified provinces,” Dar said.
SAAD is a locally funded program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) intended to help alleviate poverty among the marginalized sectors on agriculture and fisheries sectors.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) have identified 30 provinces in the country to be among the marginalized sectors of the agriculture and fisheries sector who are in need of poverty alleviation measures such as the intervention programs and projects that SAAD provides.
“SAAD is a special project which stands for Special Area for Agricultural Development with the objective of bringing livelihood and income opportunities that are sustainable to the poor members of the community or those who are in poverty who are really lacking the needed capital.
We in the department provides intervention programs and projects through SAAD like poultry, livestock raising, small ruminace, aside from providing support to vegetable production, fruit tree production with goal of raising their livelihood to alleviate their poverty situation,” the Agriculture Secretary added.
Earlier, Mountain Province Congressman Maximo Dalog Jr. have expressed his opinion on the possible extension of the Special Area for Agricultural Development or SAAD under the Department of Agriculture (DA) not only in his Congressional district but in other areas in the country needing government support to improve the production and livelihood of farmers and fisher-folks.
The Congressman explained a resolution was recently filed in the lower house by members of Congress seeking an extension of SAAD after seeing the positive contribution of the said program to their selected constituents.
”There was a house resolution filed by Congressman Olgakbo of Masbate, because of the success of SAAD they wanted this to be emulated in other areas in the country which are not SAAD identified areas since they saw the success stories of those beneficiaries of DA-CAR SAAD to which the resolution is centered on extending the program.
A house resolution is a keen to a request having a little force of law seeking an extension of the program which will depend with our economic managers if they can fund this,” Dalog earlier stated.
In the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), the provinces of Apayao, Kalinga, and Mountain Province are among the 30 SAAD provinces in the country identified by the PSA and are currently recipients of various intervention programs of SAAD.
PR/ DA-CAR