SIBAT describes the unrelenting poverty that has gripped many rural communities as essentially constituting underdevelopment and maldevelopment. Amid this problem, SIBAT believes that development change should be led, undertaken and involved the community primarily. It partners with POs in areas where the problems for land tenure had been substantially or decisively engaged, or where farmer-tillers are clearly on the path of agrarian reform. SIBAT believes that sustainable agriculture can be more fully realized where farmers can freely make decisions on the fate of their agriculture.

SIBAT also partners with local NGOs, faith-based groups and local government agencies that have shown commitment to genuinely serve communities through capacity building, by recognizing the local resource potential, and enhancement of local knowledge and culture. In partnering with NGOs and POs, SIBAT steps beyond technology advisory to partner with said stakeholders in rural development.

SIBAT therefore basically promotes community-based development as one strategy in confronting poverty and food insecurity in Philippine rural areas.

Land Tenure and Resource Security