Serna, B. C. (2016). Documentation of success stories and the lessons learned in the initial implementation of the DAR-CRS partnership project in Hacienda Luisita (Unpublished master's thesis). Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management Development Program Middle Managers Class Batch 9: Hiyas Thesis (MMC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

In CY 2013, the DAR was mandated to cover Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), a sugar plantation located in the province of Tarlac. To identify the support needed by the ARBs in the area, the local DAR office conducted a perception survey regarding their socio-economic status, finding that they lack knowledge in farming technology and enterprise development skills. To address the perceived needs of farmers, DAR through the Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development (BARBD) implemented the "Linking Smallholder Farmers to Market (LinkSFarM) project in partnership with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to benefit the ARBs in Hacienda Luisita. The project aims to increase the income of the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) by establishing viable agro-enterprises and linking these enterprises directly to institutional markets. To sustain its gains, the project has also sought to capacitate DAR implementers in agro-enterprise development and management. The LinkSFarM project focuses on the adoption of the Eight (8) Steps Clustering Approach in Agro-enterprise Development, which delineates and identifies the activities needed to engage farmers in collective production and marketing with the expectation that this will lead to increase production and income. In general, the low income of ARB household is the major problem that DAR faces in the delivery of support service to ARBs. The causes of this problem could be attributed to myriad factors; chief among them is that the monitoring and evaluation system in place does not capture project implementation processes and practices which can be replicated by other DAR Implementers and farmers/ARBs. To address this issue, the documentation of success stories under the LinkSFarM project shall be pursued and disseminated to help improve or enhance the DAR and CRS partnership project being implemented in support to ARBs in Hacienda Luisita and other areas nationwide. Therefore, various concpts and related studies served as guides in the documentation of the success stories. In the implementation of the project, the framework of the ReP interventions relative to the attainment of deliverables and outcomes was thus developed. Consequently, the documentation could be utilized to help re-design and re-program the various development programs and projects that are now being implemented by DAR. To achieve the goals and objectives of this effort, it is necessary that the processes, activities and deliverables are accomplished. The implementation of the risk management plan and communication plan as well as the support of the ReP team and sponsor will ensure the successful implementation of the project. The scholar therefore hopes that theses enhancements will help increase farm productivity and improve the income of ARBs and their households, thereby contributing to the attainment of the social contracts that the Aquino Administration has made with the Filipino people: the reduction of poverty throughout the country.