More than 50,000 farmers were provided with various agrarian reform benefits in the Bicol Region last year, making the region the top support service provider in the country.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Bicol Region was named as the “top performer” nationwide in terms of providing support services to the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
According to the department, the regional office registered a 99.97-percent accomplishment rate based on the DAR year-end summative assessment of accomplishments for 2020 and in the planning conference for 2021 held in Olongapo City.
The regional office has served a total of 50,213 ARBs in the entire region by providing the farmers with direct access to the agency’s various development interventions for 2020.
“I commend all of you, the entire workforce of the Program Beneficiaries Development Division for aggressively performing your jobs in the agrarian reform communities despite the uncomfortable situations just to deliver the needs of the ARBs—helping and guiding them to roar back to life and strengthen their organizations to face future disruptions especially in the post-pandemic era,” Former Bicol Regional Director Arnel S. Dizon said.
Among the various interventions provided by the department were through its programs such as Climate Resilient Farm Productivity Support, Linking Smallholder Farmers to Market with Microfinance, Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty, Agricultural Production Credit Program, and other microfinance services, Farm Business School, Village Level Farms-focused Enterprise Development, Sustainable Livelihood Support for Disaster Affected Areas, Wash-Focused Enterprise/Livelihood under Community-managed Potable Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene project, major crop-based Block Farm Productivity Enhancement, Agri-Insurance Program for Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries, and Convergence on Livelihood Assistance for ARBs Project or CLAAP, among others.