Sagip Saka launched to boost farmers' income, quality of life

MANILA, Philippines - Sagip Saka, an advocacy to achieve sustainable modern agriculture and food security by transforming agricultural communities to reach their full potential, was launched yesterday with an initial funding of P100 million from the Priority Development Assistance Funding of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM).

Sen. Francis Pangilinan and Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala led the launch of the Sagip Saka advocacy yesterday at the Club Filipino in Greenhills.

In a press briefing, Pangilinan said, that additional funding for Sagip Saga would be made available.

The initial funding of P100 million is just the 2011 allocation, he said. By the middle of this year, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food said, another P100 million would be allocated, and a similar allocation of P100 million would be made in 2013.

Furthermore, Pangilinan said, additional funding for the advocacy would eventually be sourced from the soon to be revived Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF).

Sagip Saka is an advocacy to achieve sustainable modern agriculture and food security by transforming agricultural communities to reach their full potential, improving farmers’ and fisherfolks’ quality of life, and bridging gaps through public-private partnerships.

Thus, Sagip Saka would help provide access to investments and credit; open access to market; roll out infrastructure; strengthen research and development; organize farmer communities and cooperatives; ensure the quality and consistency of supply and mitigate risks brought about by climate change.

According to Pangilinan, the Sagig Saka advocacy is built on five pillars of close and critical collaboration among the DA and other government agencies; the business sector; farmers and fisherfolk cooperatives; civil society organizations and micro-finance institutions and local government units.

He added that the advocacy is “meant to give agriculture and fisheries the primacy that it deserves by focusing on improving the quality of life of our farmers and fisherfolk and, in doing so, building sustainable farming communities nationwide as a means to achieve food security.”