Caraga Region: Five indigenous peoples (IP) communities in the Caraga Region, each holding a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), have been designated as priority areas under the Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project (MIADP) by the Department of Agriculture (DA). This initiative, funded by the World Bank with a budget of PHP6.625 billion, aims to benefit these communities.
According to Philippines News Agency, the primary goal of the MIADP in the Caraga Region is to sustainably increase agricultural productivity, enhance the resilience of IP farming systems, and improve their access to crucial markets and support services. Rebecca Atega, the DA-13 (Caraga) regional technical director for operations, highlighted these objectives during a press conference held on Monday.
The MIADP, which extends to other regions in Mindanao with organized IP communities within identified CADTs, was launched in 2023. It is a collaborative effort between the DA, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), and local government units (LGUs). The program aims to sustainably enhance agricultural productivity, build resilience against climate change, and improve access to markets and essential services for organized IP communities within their CADTs in the Caraga Region and other parts of Mindanao.
The five prioritized CADTs in Caraga encompass a total land area exceeding 129,000 hectares and are home to around 47,000 IPs, primarily from the Manobo and Mamanwa tribes. The specific CADTs include CADT 078 in Rosario, Agusan del Sur; CADT 254 covering the towns of Mainit, Malimono, San Francisco, Sison, and Surigao del Norte; CADT 256 in Remedios T. Romualdez, Agusan del Norte; CADT 136 in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur; and CADT 116 in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur.
Atega stated that the total budget for the MIADP across Mindanao is PHP6.625 billion, comprising PHP5.30 billion in loan proceeds, PHP863 million contributed by the DA, and PHP461 million in equity from the LGUs. As of April this year, CADT 078 in Rosario, Agusan del Sur, has PHP147 million worth of programs and projects in the pipeline, with emphasis on boosting the recipients’ existing coconut farming enterprises.
Notably, CADT 254 in Surigao del Norte endorsed its Ancestral Domain Agricultural Implementation Framework (ADAIF) for project investment proposals under the MIADP last week, paving the way for similar support. On Monday, the IPs under CADT 256 in Remedios T. Romualdez, Agusan del Norte, also approved and endorsed their ADAIF for MIADP intervention. The remaining IP areas, CADT 136 in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur, and CADT 116 in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur, are in the final stages of preparing their ADAIF for MIADP project investments this year.
