The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquaculture and Natural Resources Research and Development-Agricultural Resources Management Research Division (PCAARRD-ARMRD), conducted a program review of the year one accomplishments of the Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines (Project SARAI) phase two held at E.O. Tan Hall, PCAARRD, Los Baños, Laguna last January 28, 2019. 

Aimed at monitoring and evaluating the progress of the program, more than 100 participants including the SARAI project components, partner State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), National Government Agencies (NGAs) and PCAARRD staff attended the event. Fifteen project components of SARAI and 11 partner SUCs were able to present their accomplishments and activities. 

Dr. Maria Victoria O. Espaldon, program and project leader, presented the program overview and the accomplishments of Project SARAI. For the past months, the program has strengthened its partnership through local inception meeting and local launching of Project SARAI. Partnerships that stemmed from the local inception and launching were the various agencies from different regions around the country. It has also established demonstration and monitoring sites, which were distributed among the different SUCs. Demo farms served as venues for SARAI farmers to show the potential benefits of adopting SARAI technologies and management techniques by the program.

The evaluators of the program were Mr. Rodolfo I. Ilao, former PCAARRD-ARMRD director; Dr. Antonio J. Alcantara, former SESAM professor and currently the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Officer (MENRO) of the Municipality of Los Baños, Laguna; and Dr. Nathaniel Bantayan, professor at the College of Forestry and Natural Resources, UPLB.