A total of 16 SIFI Livelihood-assisted Agrarian Reform Beneficiary Organization (ARBOs) in Negros Occidental were visited for a series of on-site livelihood assessment and evaluation.
The various livelihood-assisted enterprises of the Sugar Industry Foundation, Inc. (SIFI) on peanut production & processing, egg layering, community bakery, rice retailing & banana processing were assessed and evaluated. Status reports of their business and financial statements were checked to examine the ARBOs’ accountability, transparency, credibility, and capacity for development, expansion, and additional livelihood sources.
SIFI’s linkages with both government and non-government agencies were re-introduced to the ARBOs. With this, the organizations know where they can access free trainings, workshops, seminars and funds. The DOLE Integrated Livelihood Program (DILP) was highlighted to the ARBOs who are interested in organizational expansion, development, and creating new kabuhayan to the farmers. Afterwards, the ARBOs were sought to create business planning and project proposals as part of their developing livelihood sources.
In the evaluation, the SIFI Livelihood Project Officer Alfael Belleza discussed a variety of topics relative to how the groups can manage their livelihood operations, market risk, and structures to a bigger scale. Financial management and policy making concerns were also raised as these are a few of the noted risks and challenges that farmers face. The significance of financial records, documents, and bookkeeping were discussed during the assessment. With an aim for a bigger target market, advertising on social media was considered to contribute to income generation especially when collaborative trade fairs are frequently held to maximize the consumption of their farm produce to the households.
