The Department of Agriculture-Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) granted a P2,881,500 caracow project to 85 individual farmer-beneficiaries in Western Visayas recently, as part of the government’s poverty reduction efforts.
The intervention coupled with plow and harrow implements is in support of the Rice Production Livelihood Project in five towns in the region covered by the DA-SAAD program for 2020.
For Negros Occidental, more than 50 individuals from Salvador Benedicto, Moises Padilla, and Calatrava availed of the caracows.
Dominador Marquez, SAAD program focal person in Region 6, said that the team concluded the draft animal dispersal on December 1.
“Before our distribution, we told the farmer-beneficiaries to provide proper pasture and forage to the ruminants to avoid cases of mortality. Hopefully, they can multiply the animal stocks rapidly so other members of every recipient association can also benefit,” he said.
He urged the beneficiaries to obtain insurance protection for their animals from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation against natural calamities or disease outbreaks.
The DA-SAAD has been delivering livelihood projects since 2019 to bolster the marginal farmers’ rice, corn, vegetable, and animal production in the five SAAD priority municipalities in the region.*