20 poorest provinces remain in DA program

Agriculture Secretary William Dar will continue to implement his predecessor’s Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) program, this time focusing on the top 20 poorest provinces in the country.

SAAD was started by former agriculture chief Emmanuel Pinol when he assumed office in 2016.

Dar recently assured farmers and fisherfolks that the program, which aims to reduce the number of poor Filipinos and lift them out of poverty, would continue to be carried out by the agency.

“We will continue to strengthen SAAD as a major program of the department. We want to reach more beneficiaries through SAAD, which is designed to cater to poor households and groups,” he said.

Dar also committed to retain the other initiatives that have effectively changed the lives of the local farmers and fisherfolks.

He intends to increase the SAAD budget to implement additional livelihood projects.

The DA targets to double the annual income of rural families, currently pegged at P100,000, in the next five years, in line with the national agenda of the government to reduce poverty incident in the countryside.

Among the country’s poorest provinces are Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Saranggani, Northern Samar, Maguindanao, Bukidnon, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga del Norte, Siquijor, and Agusan del Sur.

Also included are Eastern Samar, Lanao del Norte, Mt. Province, Western Samar, North Cotabato, Catanduanes, Leyte, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga Sibugay and Sorsogon.

Meanwhile, the DA has released P136 million in new loans to farmers in the Eastern Visayas to help them cope with the continued decline of palay (unhusked rice) prices due to the liberalization of imports.

The newly released credit assistance forms part of the P2.5 billion Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program for Rice Farmers (SURE Aid), which DA and the Land Bank of the Philippines launched two months ago.

The DA, through state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines, recently distributed cash cards to 9,095 farmers from Biliran, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Samar.

Under the SURE Aid program, a one-time nocollateral, zero-interest loan amounting to P15,000 will be provided for each farmer tilling less than one hectare to enable the beneficiary to continue or improve rice production. The loan is payable in eight years.

As of last week, total cash loans amounted to P350 million, benefitting more than 22,000 farmers.

To make the loan application process easier for farmers, Landbank cut the application process to three hours from the usual 10 days and reduced the number of required documents.

Instead of the usually tedious process of filling up forms for loan application, sworn statement, and data privacy consent, the farmer only needs to tick the appropriate boxes on the forms. The bank also trimmed the 14-page promissory note to just one page.

DA said this was done to encourage farmers to apply for loans from formal credit providers as a way to boost investments in the farming sector.