CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Philippine Information Agency (PIA) recently documented some of the success stories of the Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) in San Luis, Pampanga.
In a report furnished Sun.Star Pampanga, DAR Public Assistance and Media Relations Service Director Erlinda Manluctao said that the documentation is part of the agreement with the PIA where the data will be used in the production of information, education, and communication materials related to CARP.
In the report, DAR-Pampanga disclosed that the San Luis ARC was launched in 1994 covering the seven barangays of San Juan, San Nicolas, Sto. Tomas, Sta. Lucia, Sta. Monica, San Carlos, and Sta. Rita.
The DAR said that the San Luis ARC runs high in the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) as well as non-LAD accomplishment of 982.2342 hectares and 192.49 hectares, respectively with 879 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs).
“We are currently assisting 11 People’s Organizations (POs) on empowerment processes and social capital formation,” DAR-Pampanga Head Eden Ponio said.
Services offered by these POs include palay trading, rice milling, relending, rice threshing, farm inputs, crop loan and warehousing.
Among the CARP-funded infrastructure projects provided in the different ARC barangays are the rehabilitation and concreting of Farm-to-Market Roads, and Pump Irrigation Projects with about 360 hectare service area benefitting 1,106 ARBs from San Luis and nearby municipalities.
Under the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity Economic Support Services (ARCCESS) program, common service facilities composed of hand tractor with implements, mechanical transplanter with seed conveyor and trays, and combine harvester were detailed to the San Juan Pambilog and San Nicolas Multipurpose Cooperatives.
ARCCESS is a support service delivery strategy that provides professional service including Agri-Extension Services, Business Development Services and Common Service Facilities or farm machineries and equipment.
“The farm machineries are intended to enhance the business services of the organizations as well as other adjacent Agrarian Reform Areas (ARAs) while the institutional component relates to the strengthening of the subject organization as the prime mover of all other factors,” Ponio added.
To add up to the number of projects being facilitated in San Luis ARC is the Social Entrepreneurship Program at Sikap ng San Luis Credit Cooperative in Sta. Rita.
“This is an innovative, scalable and sustainable pathway to poverty reduction in ARAs as ARB leaders assume a more active role in the different initiatives of developing sustainable livelihoods and notably worth mentioning is the involvement of 75 percent of the women population in this endeavor,” Ponio said.