Calamagui North, Santa Maria— As El Niño tightens its grip on Cagayan Valley, threatening pasture lands and small ruminant stocks, the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 2 is taking the fight directly to the barangays. Literally, door-to-door.
Through its Organic Agriculture Program, DA-RFO2 recently completed the delivery of high-value organic sheep to the Santa Maria Participatory Guarantee System [PGS] Group in the upland areas of Cagayan Valley. The intervention aims to cushion farmers from the worsening drought and give them a climate-resilient, income-generating alternative.
The delivery was not routine. Santa Maria’s PGS members live in remote, hilly communities where paved roads end and trails begin. To reach them, DA-RFO2 deployed high-end 4×4 pickup trucks built to traverse mud, river crossings, and steep gradients. Not for comfort, not for luxury, but for public service.
“Pag hindi namin dinala mismo sa bakuran nila, hindi ito makakarating,” said Mr. George Caday, DA-RFO2 Organic Program Focal Person. “El Niño is already here. We cannot wait for farmers to come to us. We must go to them.”
Each unit was unloaded carefully at the recipients’ farm gates, complete with orientation on organic feeding, housing, and health management. For many beneficiaries, it was the first time a government livestock project arrived at their doorstep without added transport costs or losses in transit.
Sheep are fast-maturing, hardy, and require less water and forage than cattle or goats. Under the DA’s organic system, they are raised without synthetic feeds or antibiotics, making them compliant with organic market standards and premium pricing.
For Santa Maria PGS, the timing is critical. El Niño has dried up communal grazing areas and pushed up feed prices. The organic sheep serve as a “cushion,” a diversified livelihood that can survive dry spells and still generate cash through meat, breeding stock, and manure for organic fertilizer.
“Ang tupa, hindi gaanong maselan sa init basta may lilim at tubig. Malaking ginhawa ito ngayong tagtuyot,” said Arvin Domenden, a PGS member from Santa Maria.
The door-to-door strategy reflects DA-RFO2 Organic Program’s broader commitment: make organic agriculture accessible, especially to GIDA [Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas] communities.
Beyond livestock, the program also provides organic seeds, biofertilizers, training, and PGS certification support. But livestock, program implementers say, delivers immediate resilience.
“Organic sheep are climate-smart assets,” the Organic Program Focal Person noted. “They reproduce quickly, adapt well, and their manure feeds our vegetable and rice farms. It’s a closed-loop system that helps farmers withstand shocks like El Nino.
The Santa Maria PGS delivery is part of DA-RFO2’s intensified El Niño mitigation efforts across the region. By decentralizing delivery and using rugged 4×4 mobility, the agency is cutting logistical barriers that often delay assistance to the farthest farms.
For the farmers of Santa Maria, the bleating of new organic sheep at their gates is more than livestock. It is proof that government service can reach the last mile, even under a scorching sun.
As Ms. Liza Laggui put it: “Hindi na kami kailangang bumaba ng bayan. Dinala na sa amin ang pag-asa.”
Via Dr. Ferdinand Cortez