Rural dev't projects

Over 10K farmers to benefit from PRDP

DAVAO CITY – Around 10,000 more farmer- beneficiaries are expected to directly benefit from approved enterprise development projects under DA’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), a recent report revealed.

Under PRDP’s Investment for Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Productivity (I-REAP) portfolio, 43 subprojects with a total cost of P184.21 million have been approved to date with one ongoing subproject in South Cotabato, the Cassava Granules Production and Marketing Project.

Around 10,930 farmer beneficiaries from 110 cooperatives who act as proponent groups and implementers of the project will benefit from the subprojects.

Forty-one subprojects with a total cost of P151.14 million have been issued the No Objection Letter (NOL) 1 which means that these projects are now approved.

While one project – the P4.98-million Rubber Expansion and Marketing Project in North Cotabato – issued with NOL 2. A NOL 2 issuance means that the project can proceed to procurement process.

“We are doubling our efforts to move all the approved enterprise projects into its procurement stage within the year so that the farmer-beneficiaries can start reaping the project gains,” PRDP Mindanao project director Ricardo Oñate Jr. said.

He said that all enterprise projects aim to increase the incomes of the farmers and to enhance their productivity by strengthening market linkages.

Enterprise projects are classified into small, medium, and micro or startup enterprises.

Region 12 has been issued with NOL 1 for four enterprise subprojects with a total cost of P56.98 million for coffee, coconut and abaca, while three enterprise subprojects in Region 11 are given NOL 1 with a total cost of P25.08 million for its champion commodity cacao.

Region 13 has also been issued NOL1 for its Abaca enterprise with P22.89 million. Region 9 has one NOL 1-approved subproject with a cost of P13.40 million for Cacao.

In Region 10, aside from the P8.78-million NOL 1-approved subproject in Lanao del Norte, 31 microenterprises with a total of P43.38 million have been issued NOL 1 in Bukidnon. These approved subprojects have been classified under microenterprises that address the problems in the El Niño-affected areas.

Around 18 of the 27 Mindanao provinces have enterprises subprojects both approved and pipelined or those undergoing review. Jay M. Rosas, PRDP Mindanao