DA Bicol hosts AKbay program / review and planning workshop

The 50 AKBay coordinators from the different provinces and staff of National Agricultural and Fisheries Council.

The Department of Agriculture in Bicol recently hosted the program review and planning workshop for Agrikultura : Kaagapay ng Bayang Pinoy (AKBay) held at Villa Caceres Hotel in Naga City. Over 50 AKBay coordinators from the different provinces of the country and National Agricultural and Fisheries Council (NAFC) staff attended the review/workshop.

The activity aims to identify issues and problems affecting the program implementation; know the learnings and strategies of other regions in the program implementation; review/update amendments on the guidelines of the programs and devise instruments in monitoring the project.

NAFC Executive Director Ariel T. Cayanan said that this activity would identify strengths how other regions achieve better than other regions and also learn other strategies on how to implement the project effectively and efficiently. He also lauded the efforts of the regions with good achievements and from that he urged other regions to know the different strategies of these regions and adopt them in their respective regions. He also emphasized open communication is important for a smooth and effective project implementation. Since 2013 is just around the corner he urged all coordinators to fast track implementation of the project to ensure that more would benefit from it.

Agriculture Regional Director Jose V. Dayao on the otherhand , said that AKBay has greatly helped people in the countryside to generate livelihood. For Bicol alone, over 1,250 marginalize farm households benefitted from the said project. Dayao added that with the good track record of the region he is optimistic that the project would go a long way as two provinces are now recipient of the roll over scheme.

Meanwhile, RAFC vice chair Alfredo Rillo said farm households whose annual per capita income are below the poverty threshold are qualified to access the program provided they are engaged in farming, fishing and other related agricultural and fishery ventures. AKBay is a social intervention program for the poorest households in agricultural and fishery sector. He believes that given the right direction and focus the program would benefit more farm families in the country thereby reducing poverty and malnutrition.

AKBay is a newly approved program under the 2KR- Japanese Grant Assistance for the Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers Program. This was conceptualized by the National Agriculture and Fishery Council (NAFC) and being implemented in the region in tandem with the agency’s regional field units (RFU), the local government units (LGUs) and the local agriculture and fishery councils.