TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Some 42 barangays in Kalinga will be getting P49 million worth of project under the Special Area for Agriculture Development of the Department of Agriculture – Cordillera.

Five Tabuk barangays received some P8.4 million from the P49 million allocated by the DA-CAR for the province.

SAAD Operations Officer Balag-ey Claver in a recent forum in here said that DA-CAR’s SAAD program has been expanded and increased to that amount covering said barangays some of which are in the list of the End Local Communist Armed Conflict or ELCAC villages, the Public Information Office – Tabuk City reported.

Included in the SAAD coverage are Bagumbayan and Dupag villages where P3.6 million had been allocated by the DA-CAR to fund fruit trees and carabao production projects, said the release.

The villages of Nambucayan, Guilayon and Magnao will also get P4.8 million from DA – CAR for projects that include integrated fruit trees production, free-range chicken and duck productions.

Other barangays covered by the program are Nambucayan, Guilayon, and Magnao where the DA-CAR has also programmed some P 4.8 million for various projects including integrated fruit trees production, free range chicken production, and duck production.

The three barangays were among the villages that received livelihood projects when SAAD was first implemented here last year.

Executive Assistant Henry Gupaal, who represented mayor Darwin Estrañero in the forum, said the SAAD projects implementation is very timely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Dakkel ti tulong na dagituy nga proyekto karkaru tatta nga pandemya (These projects will be of big help especially that we are under a pandemic),” he said.

Claver said the ultimate goal of the SAAD program is to cultivate agricultural entrepreneurship among farmers for a stable source of livelihood.

“The people need help but our objective is after the intervention, we should have created an enterprise,” he said.

The SAAD program in Kalinga will continue next year with more villages to be covered, added Claver.

SAAD is DA’s locally-funded program intended to help alleviate poverty among the marginalized sectors on agriculture and fishery.

The four major components of SAAD are: program management, social preparation, production and livelihood interventions, and marketing assistance and enterprise development.