Sagbayan farm-to-market road nears completion

The farm-to-market road (FMR) constructed in Sagbayan, Bohol implemented under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) is now nearing completion.

In its PRDP update, the Department of Agriculture in Region 7 engineers from the PRDP-Project Support Office Visayas and the local government conducted a joint inspection of the San Agustin-Canmaya Diot FMR in Sagbayan, as the project now nears completion.

The P48.2-million road project started rehabilitation works last Sept. 15, 2015.

The 5.9-kilometer FMR is expected to benefit about 2,000 farmers and support 1,256 hectares of land planted to rice, corn, coconut, banana, vegetables and rootcrops.

The road project connects four barangays, namely San Agustin, Canmaya Centro, Kagawasan and Canmaya Diot.

The FMR will lessen travel time and transport cost in bringing the farmers' produce to the market, resulting to better opportunities and income.

It can be recalled that Sagbayan was one of the badly hit municipalities during the October 2013 Bohol earthquake.

Recently, the DA-7 also conducted a pre-bidding conference involving a P53million worth of subprojects for the rehabilitation of Carmen Weste via Tugbas FMR in Balilihan, Bohol and the Baang-Mahayang Norte FMR in Catigbian, Bohol.

Last May, the DA also awarded the 6.69-kilometer FMR to the local government of Santander town in southern Cebu.

The P69.6-million FMR connects barangay Looc to Talisay (vice versa) in Santander.

The road project will facilitate the transport of basic agricultural products in the community which include chicken, coconut, corn and cassava produced by 6,858 farmer beneficiaries, DA said.

PRDP is a six-year P27.5-billion project led by the DA, covering the country's 80 provinces in 16 regions.

The PRDP, which was first implemented in 2014, is funded by the Washingtonbased World Bank through a loan.