DAVAO CITY—More than 10,000 members of cooperatives across Mindanao stand to benefit from the recently approved projects of the World Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP).
The PRDP said it has approved 43 projects costing P184.21 million under its Investment for Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Productivity (I-Reap) portfolio. One project, the Cassava Granules Production and Marketing Project, is currently going on in South Cotabato.
It said there were 10,930 farmer beneficiaries from 110 cooperatives in these projects, and they would act as proponent groups and implementers of the project.
Some 41 projects were already issued with the No Objection Letter (NOL) 1, “which means these projects are now approved”. These projects have a funding of P151.14 million
One project, the P4.98-million Rubber Expansion and Marketing Project in North Cotabato, was also issued with the NOL 2, “which means the project can proceed to the 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 all enterprise projects would like to increase the incomes of farmers and enhance their productivity “by strengthening market linkages”.
Enterprise projects are classified into micro, small and medium, or start-up enterprises.
He said Region 12 has been issued with NOL 1 for four enterprise projects for coffee, coconut and abaca, with funding of P56.98 million. Three enterprise projects in Region 11 were given NOL 1 with funding of P25.08 million for its champion commodity cacao.
Region 13 has also been issued with the NOL1 for its abaca enterprise with P22.89 million.
Region 9 has one NOL 1-approved project with a cost of P13.4 million for cacao.
In Region 10, aside from the P8.78-million NOL 1-approved project 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 El Niño-affected areas, he said.
Eighteen of the 27 Mindanao provinces have enterprise projects both approved and pipelined or those undergoing review, the PRDP said.
PRDP Mindanao I-Reap component head Basila Siago said the PRDP has assisted in the forging of 30 marketing agreements between proponent groups and buyers, including two international buyers.
“While we help our cooperatives achieve increase in the production of their yield, it is equally important to ensure there is a ready market for their products,” she said.