DAR appeals to development partners

“Let us all be one in ensuring that our paramount goals will be met as we provide integrated delivery of services and programs to rural farming, fishing, and upland communities of the country.”

This was the message of Agrarian Reform Secretary John R. Castriciones at the opening of a donors’ forum last week in Pasay City.

Castriciones invited previous and potential partners to extend aid to the 37% of agrarian reform communities (ARC) that are still waiting for interventions. This in spite of 6,451 various infrastructure subprojects, worth Php45.63 billion, that have been approved in the first half of the year.

The chief of the Department of Agrarian Reform disclosed that to date, the agency has launched a total of 2,217 ARCs and 119 ARC clusters nationwide as building blocks of growth of agriculture and agribusiness in rural areas. These will be the focus of program implementation and convergence points for partnerships with other government agencies, local government units, the private sector, civil society organizations and people’s organizations.

He added that 63% or 1,390 ARCs have already received funding assistance from various foreign-assisted projects, while, only 9% of the total ARC Clusters have firm funding commitments.

Castrciones said 827 ARCs and 108 ARC Clusters have not been substantially assisted, which justify the need for DAR to continue to do fund sourcing from Official Development Assistance (ODA).

ODA financing is intended to augment the resources for the provision of support services, which include strategic interventions to retain the awarded lands of agrarian reform beneficiaries through increased production, capacity development, and engagement in profitable agri-based and related enterprises.

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