AGREA Leaders Serve on the Board of Judges for the 51st Gawad Saka Awards

AGREA Executive Director Christine Jodloman served on the Board of Judges for the Rural Improvement Club category, while Founder Cherrie Atilano chaired the Outstanding Farmer and Fisherfolk Family category at the 51st Gawad Saka Awards.

A seat at the table where excellence is recognized

The Gawad Saka is the Department of Agriculture’s highest recognition program for excellence in agriculture and fisheries. Established in 1970, it honors individuals, groups, and institutions whose leadership, innovation, and sustained contributions have advanced agricultural development, rural progress, and national transformation. In 2026, the 51st edition of the awards recognized 37 outstanding agri-fishery champions across seven major categories: crops, livestock, fisheries, institutions, extension, youth, and cross-cutting initiatives.

AGREA Foundation’s leadership was part of the process. Ms. Christine Jodloman, Executive Director, served on the Board of Judges for the Rural Improvement Club (RIC) Category. Ms. Cherrie Atilano, Founder and Chairperson, chaired the Board of Judges for the Outstanding Farmer and Fisherfolk Family Category.

Their participation placed AGREA’s perspective, grounded in years of work with farming and fishing communities, inside the deliberation room where national excellence in agriculture is assessed. It is a role that carries responsibility: the Board of Judges evaluates nominees, weighs evidence against criteria, and selects the national winners whose work will be held up as models for the sector.

What the Gawad Saka recognizes

The Gawad Saka is not a single award but a portfolio of searches. The 51st edition included categories spanning rice, corn, coconut, sugarcane, high-value crops, urban and peri-urban agriculture, livestock, aquaculture, fish capture, agricultural extension, youth farming, and rural entrepreneurship.

Two categories are particularly relevant to AGREA’s work.

The Rural Improvement Club (RIC) Category recognizes women-led, barangay-based organizations that are technically assisted by local government agricultural technicians. The RIC is described by the Department of Agriculture as a voluntary organization of 20 to 30 rural women mobilized for socio-economic projects, serving as a channel for developing women’s leadership and potential toward home and community improvement. The DA recognizes RICs as functional partners in agricultural and rural development, and the search is designed to highlight their contributions and sustain their enthusiasm for agro-industrial endeavors. The 51st Gawad Saka Outstanding RIC winner was the MAABET Rural Improvement Club of Taytay, Palawan, Region IV-B.

The Outstanding Farmer and Fisherfolk Family Category recognizes the family as the basic unit of agricultural production. The search aims to recognize exemplary performance of farmer and fisherfolk families engaged in agricultural, fishery, rural, and social development undertakings, and to contribute to development by strengthening the farmer/fisherfolk family approach. The 51st Gawad Saka Outstanding Farmer/Fisherfolk Family winner was the Rolando Rocapor Family of Rosario, La Union, Region I.

Both categories reflect a principle that AGREA’s work has long emphasized: that agricultural development is not only about yields and volumes, but about the people, families, and community organizations that sustain production over time.

Why these roles matter for AGREA

AGREA’s mission is to help eradicate poverty for farming and fishing families, alleviate the effects of climate change, and contribute to food security in the Philippines. Its work includes farm schools, women’s cooperatives, circular economy enterprises, and policy advocacy with local governments.

Serving on the Board of Judges for the Gawad Saka is a different kind of contribution. It is not program implementation. It is the work of evaluation, reading nominations, assessing evidence, and making judgments about which initiatives meet the standard of national excellence. That work requires familiarity with the realities of smallholder agriculture: the constraints farmers and fishers face, the innovations that emerge from necessity, and the difference between a program that looks good on paper and one that changes conditions on the ground.

Ms. Jodloman’s background includes over a decade of development work and recognition for her contributions to agricultural education, including a second-place award in the 2023 Women in Ag Awards. Ms. Atilano founded AGREA in 2014 and has reached more than 30,000 smallholder farmers through programs that raise incomes, improve market access, and promote environmentally sound farming practices. Her work as a High-Level Ambassador for the UN Scaling Up Nutrition Movement and a Food Choices Champion of the United Nations has consistently connected local practice to national and global policy conversations.

Their participation on the Board of Judges reflects the kind of expertise that AGREA brings to the sector: not only the ability to implement programs, but the ability to assess what works, what does not, and why.

The 51st Gawad Saka in context

The 51st Gawad Saka national awarding ceremony was held on June 29, 2026, at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. The awards were revived in 2024 by Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. after a temporary suspension during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaffirming the Department’s commitment to recognizing excellence in the agriculture and fisheries sector.

In his keynote address, Senator Francis N. Pangilinan, chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, said the awardees had redefined success in agriculture by demonstrating that it goes beyond productivity to include community solidarity, innovation, resilience, sustainable livelihoods, and an improved quality of life for those working in the sector.

“You are the living proof that this vision is possible,” he said. “You have shown that through courage, innovation, and solidarity, we can build agriculture, fisheries, and institutions that are not only productive but also just, inclusive, and resilient.”

That framing aligns with what AGREA has consistently argued: that the measure of agricultural progress is not only what is produced, but who benefits and whether the systems that produce it can endure.

A note of appreciation

To the Department of Agriculture for convening the 51st Gawad Saka, and to the farmers, fishers, families, and organizations whose work was recognized: the awards are a reminder that excellence in agriculture is built over years, often without recognition. The ceremony is a moment to acknowledge that work.

AGREA Foundation remains committed to supporting the sector, through program implementation, through partnerships, and through participation in the processes that define what excellence looks like.

To learn more about AGREA Foundation’s work with farming and fishing communities, explore the organization’s official channels. Organizations interested in collaborating on agricultural development, food security, or rural livelihoods can reach out through AGREA’s contact page.