1890 M worth of agri projects up for implementation in Davao del Sur

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has withdrawn as much as 1890 million from the World Bank-backed Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) funds to bankroll six infrastructure and six agriculture-enterprise subprojects in Davao del Sur.

Of the amount, the DA earmarked 1834 million for infrastructure projects that aim to improve road networks linking production areas with markets to achieve efficient transportation of agri products.

Launched in 2013, DA's PRDP is the biggest World Bank-funded project in the Philippines. It started as a farm-to-market road (FMR) initiative and was eventually added with several livelihood components.

In February, DA has identified several agriculture projects for some of Mindanao’s poorest provinces, and will bankroll them using as much as 17 billion worth of PRDP funds.

Davao del Sur's subprojects under IBUILD (Intensified Building up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development) component particularly include four FMR with a combined length of 35.16 kilometers (km) amounting to 1539 million.

These farm roads are being implemented in the towns of Hagonoy, Malalag, and Magsaysay which has two ongoing FMR constructions.

Meanwhile, the Rehabilitation of 14.29 km Waterfall-Osmeña FMR with 122.5 liner meter PSCG Bridge in Sulop town allocated with 1251 million is recently issued No Objection Letter and is now ready to bid.

Then a package of post-harvest facilities in Matanao town worth 143 million is still ongoing. These facilities consist 14 units warehouses with solar dryer aimed to increase the market value of banana by 100 percent per kilogram, rice by 40 percent, corn by 39 percent, and coconut by 64 percent.

The existence of good drying infrastructure will also help reduce the postharvest losses.

These six infrastructure projects, according to DA, will benefit 15,675 households.

“We need to fast-track our implementation so that we can achieve our objectives to increase the income of our farmers and household beneficiaries in agri-fishery sector and to develop a more market-oriented and climate-resilient agriculture,” said DA Davao Regional Director Ricardo M. Oñate Jr.