Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Help Make Caraga an Organic Region --- DA RFU 13 RED Mabeza


Surigao City - “Let’s help make Caraga an organic region”.

This was an appeal from Regional Executive Director Edna M. Mabeza of the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit 13 during the Organic Agriculture Year-end Assessment held in Mount Bagarabon, Mabua, Surigao City last December 9-10, 2011.

Mabeza said that organic agriculture should be given utmost priority as a centerpiece project of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to attain not just sufficiency in food but healthy as well.

She said that all stakeholders should be hand in hand in pushing for organic farming based on Private-Public-Partnership (PPP).

She stressed that local government units, the Department of Agriculture, non government organizations as well as the religious sector are equally important in pushing organic agriculture in the country.

“We have the same goals which is to uplift our living conditions, so we should have go hand in hand on this endeavor”, Mabeza said.

She also commended the effort of all staff engaged in organic program having attaining the unparalled  success despite of implementing it in the region for less that five months ago.

It was learned that as of December 2011, Regional Organic Agriculture Focal Person Rebecca Atega had received and acted upon around 105 proposals from LGUs and non government organizations.

Mabeza said that battlecry of the department of agriculture is not just to increase production but also the income of the farmers. (Aurell P. Arais/RAFID DA CARAGA)

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Monday, February 20, 2012

CBMEG Helps Ensure DA-MRDP Projects Sustainable

by: Aurell P. Arais


“Monitoring is vital for the sustainability of a project.”

Thus said Mayor Leo Navarro of Marihatag, Surigao del Sur during the Community Based Monitoring and Evaluation Group Training of the Department of Agriculture -Mindanao Rural Development Program (DA-MRDP) held in the said town last January 11-12, 2012.

He said that in the past numerous projects from the government, after it has been transferred to the recipients just die down due to different contributing factors.

“Daghan mga proyekto nga dili mulahutay, lain-lain ang mga rason pero kung atong iksamenon ug maayo, kulang sa monitoring ang nag-unang rason” (Various projects will not sustain due to different reasons but if we look it closer, lack of monitoring is the very first reason), he said in vernacular.

Navarro lauded MRDP in coming up a scheme that the monitoring and evaluation has been given a priority and vowed to support its activities for the betterment of its constituents.

To ensure sustainability, the Natural Resource Management; Monitoring and Evaluation and Info-Ace components of MRDP from Program Support Office based in Davao City and Regional Program Coordinating Office (RPCO) based in the Regional Office of the Department of Agriculture in Butuan City jointly conducted the CBMEG training.

Participants of the training were chairmen and members of different peoples’ organizations and their respective barangay officials and counterparts from Marihatag LGU.

CBMEG is a body to be created through a barangay ordinance and has a tasked to monitor and evaluate MRDP projects within its community and submit monitoring and evaluation reports to the municipal level for proper action if deemed necessary in case of eventualities on the projects.

Marihatag is a recipient of Global Equity Fund (GEF) with particular subprojects called On the Ground Investments (OGI) such as river bank stabilization, agroforestry and its livelihood component called Sustainable Income Generating Activities (SIGA). It is also a recipient of Community Fund for Agricultural Development (CFAD) and Rural Infrastructure (RI).

RPCO focal person Eliseo Tila revealed that Marihatag is one of most active MRDP LGU enrolled in terms of project implementation performance. (Aurell P. Arais/RAFID DA CARAGA)

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