SAAD continues to fulfill its promise to its target beneficiaries as it gears towards its second phase in Eastern Visayas.

Envisioning a food-secured country together with our empowered farmers and fisherfolks, the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) continues to fulfill its promise to its target beneficiaries as it gears towards its second phase in Eastern Visayas. With the project’s main goal to provide sustainable development for its target areas and beneficiaries, the BFAR SAAD 8 secured a Php58.4M budget allocation for FY 2023.

The said budget has been divided into three components which include Social Preparation, Food Production and Livelihood, and Program Management. A total of Php4M is allocated to Social Preparation where profiling, needs assessment, group formation, and capacity-building are established. On the other hand, Food Production and livelihood has an allocation of 47.5M which focuses on livelihood packages and specialized trainings for the beneficiaries of the project, while Php6.9M is allotted to the Program Management which focuses on implementing internal activities necessary to carry out the requested goods and services.

The project’s area selection is classified from the municipalities under 5th and 6th income class and the top 1/3 poorest municipalities from all six (6) provinces in the region, namely; Biliran, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Western, Eastern, and Northern Samar. The Mandanas Ruling, DOF release on income classification for the selection of 5th and 6th municipalities, and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) 2018 Poverty Incidence Report were used for the selection of the qualified beneficiaries.

As project implementation intensifies, several actions have already taken place within the different target areas in the region. Meetings and courtesy visits have been made with officials of Local Government Units (LGUs) and fisherfolk leaders. Program orientation and Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) activities focusing on cultivating friendly relations in order to set expectations needed for the implementation of this project were also conducted.

Implementing Provincial Fishery Offices (PFO) are currently carrying out a series of Beneficiary needs and Assessments (BNA) to identify and design appropriate interventions for the identified SAAD beneficiaries in their respective provinces. The BNA is expected to be completed by the end of April 2023. Further, trainings, site, validation, and one-on-one profiling of SAAD beneficiaries were fulfilled.

With the inception of SAAD Phase II, developmental and sustainable initiatives supporting Aquaculture Production, Capture Fisheries Development, and Post-Harvest Development will be implemented to ensure the attainment of holistic transformation as envisioned by the Bureau for its project beneficiaries. The Bureau is optimistic that through this project, the region’s fisheries industry will be strengthened and our marginalized fisherfolk communities will be empowered and transformed into thriving aquapreneurs.