Female farmers to take centerstage in DAR’s poverty alleviation, food security project

WOMEN empowerment is at its best as female farmers will take the centerstage in a poverty alleviation and food security project the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has recently forged with a foreign donor.

DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said the project, dubbed as the Value-Chain Innovation for Sustainable Transformation in Agrarian Reform Communities (VISTA), seeks to address the main causes of rural poverty and create economic opportunities for its target beneficiaries of 70,000 smallholder households, about 350,000 individuals, half of them are women.

Besides reducing poverty and increasing food production, “this project holds a powerful vision for women’s empowerment in the Philippines,” Estrella said.

The DAR chief said rural poverty exists because of poor agricultural practices, weak producer organizations, lack of infrastructure, and poor access to markets and finance.

“This is what we wanted to address through the VISTA, a six-year project spearheaded by the DAR in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development. It has a total funding of US$112.82 million, roughly estimated at P6.2 billion,” he pointed out.

VISTA will be implemented starting in January next year in 112 agrarian reform communities (ARCs) spread over the six provinces of Cordillera Administrative Region: Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province, and the four provinces of Soccskargen: North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat.

The project places more premium on women’s participation as indicated in the breakdown of the target beneficiaries: 50 percent women, 30 percent indigenous peoples, and 20 percent the youth.

Estrella said the project’s major concern is to increase income and employment and improve climate resiliency of target groups in fragile upland areas through the strengthening of inclusive value chains and conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.”

He said the idea is to rally all target beneficiaries to work collectively throughout the whole cycle of production, from the acquisition of farm inputs up to marketing of their harvests.

“By buying farm inputs in volume, it enables our agrarian reform