Photo courtesy: Special Area for Agricultural Development
DAVAO CITY(December 3) – After years of chronic underinvestment in some of Mindanao’s most remote farming communities, over PHP10 million in agricultural aid has finally reached eight farmers’ groups in Davao Occidental—an intervention farmers describe as not just support, but long-overdue recognition of their right to livelihoods, food security, and a life of dignity.
The Department of Agriculture’s Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) Program said Monday that associations in Jose Abad Santos, Don Marcelino, Sarangani, and Malita will receive projects ranging from abaca and corn production to native chicken, goat raising, fruit trees, and carabaos.
For rights advocates, the aid matters because it lands in places historically pushed to the margins of national development—upland sitios where farmers struggle with poor roads, unstable markets, and limited state presence. These vulnerabilities have fueled cycles of poverty, debt, and the painful social cost of young people leaving home to look for work in cities or abroad.
In Jose Abad Santos, PHP2.9 million worth of support went to the Lingkasa Farmers Association and Pigbaluyan Highlands Farmer Association. For many families here, basic livelihood inputs have always been a matter not just of economic need but of equity—bridging decades of uneven access to government support.
Don Marcelino’s farmer groups, including the Dalupan Renewable Energy Community Development Association (DARECDA) and San Malbino Micro-Hydro Power Association (SANMAMIHYPA), received about PHP3 million for corn and layer chicken projects. Local leaders hope this can chip away at the structural barriers that keep rural incomes low and deny young farmers a fair shot at staying in agriculture.
Women farmers in Sarangani—often the first to feel the burden when food prices spike or incomes dip—received PHP2 million worth of seedlings, livestock, and fruit trees through the Sarangani Empowered Women Association (SEWA) and PALACA Farmers, Fisherfolk, and Vendors Association. Advocates note that supporting women-led groups is not charity but a rights obligation, as gender inequalities widen when rural resources remain scarce.
In Malita, PHP2.8 million in corn, chicken, and goat interventions were awarded to the Alayao Sustainable Farmers Association (ASFA) and Pangaleon Farmers Association (PFA). Community members say such investments are crucial in a province where Indigenous and upland communities often bear the heaviest social costs of underdevelopment—from disrupted schooling to multigenerational poverty.
For DARECDA chairperson Geniars Magsayao, the support acknowledges a truth farmers have long asserted: rural families have the right to decent livelihoods, not merely survival.
“SAAD gave us hope. Each project will bring significant change—from farming conditions to the livelihoods of families,” he said. “These are rights every farmer should have had access to long ago.”
Rights advocates say the P10-million infusion is a welcome step—but warn that one year of assistance cannot undo decades of exclusion. They call for sustained, equitable investment in rural Mindanao to ensure that farming families, especially the youth, are not forced to choose between poverty at home and migration far from their communities.
For now, farmers in Davao Occidental say the aid is a start—towards fairness, dignity, and finally being seen.
