Department of Agriculture turns over 9.5 m facilities

DA turns over 9.5M agricultural facilities and other infrastructure projects to Maragusan Multi-purpose Cooperative

Compostela Valley Province---A total of 9.5Million pesos worth of agricultural facilities and infrastructure projects from the Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Office XI and the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) was officially turned over to the officials, board of directors and members of the Maragusan Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MAMPCO) last October 2, 2019.

The ceremonial turn over was held at the MAMPCO Agricultural Complex, Purok Mangga, Poblacion, Maragusan, Comval.

The program is in partnership with the Provincial Agriculturist Office (PAGRO) of the provincial government of Comval and the Municipal Agriculturist Office (MAGRO) of the municipality of Maragusan.

Attending the program were DA Region-XI representative Engr. Rubelyn Gomez together with Ronald Sibayan Assistant Provincial Agriculturist, Hon. Vice Mayor Cesar C. Colina Sr., Engr. Nelson Ortiz Municipal Agriculturist of the municipality of Maragusan, officers and members of the MAMPCO, MAGRO officials and employees and the provincial and municipal employees.

According to Sibayan, the provincial government assisted in the selection and facilitation of the documents of the requesting beneficiaries.

He added that the project was implemented with the supervision of the PAGRO, MAGRO and the DA.

“Amounting to Php337,969.66 or 20% is coming from the PLGU Comval as counterpart for the construction of the tablea facility,” said Sibayan.

The Tablea Processing and Marketing Enterprise facility has a total amount of Php2,515,348.31 from the PRDP I-REAP of the DA with 20% counter parting of the provincial government of Comval.

Among the agricultural facilities and infrastructure projects from the DA were turned over are the Coffee roasting facility worth Php1,989,109.19; 2 units fermentary facilities - Php496,120.00; 2 units weather drier- Php566,777.17; 1 unit mobile flash dryer- Php2,998,000.00; 90HP Farm tractor- Php1,980,000.00; 1 unit plant nursery- Php497,020.00; 1 unit floating tiller- Php130,000.00 and 1 unit Cassava granulator amounting to Php129, 640.00.

According to Armando B. Escuadro MAMPCO General Manager, a total of 3,458 members of their coop will benefit of the projects.

He added that the actual members that can benefit for the tablea processing project are the 150 individuals or the Cacao farmers. “Amung purpose ani nga ma protektahan ang interest sa among mga farmers nga makavail sila ug taas nga presyo. Kay ang ilang produce amung e process, he said.

“Ang amuang objective nga ang ipagawas namu nga produkto sa amung coop is finish product na para pud madugangan namu ang buying price sa ilang abot ug makaavail na sa taas-taas nga presyo,” the manager added.

Meanwhile, Calixto Saromines a cacao farmer expressed his gratitude to the DA and the provincial government for the said project. “Nalipay kog dako nga naabot ni nga mga project dria kay dako kayo ni ug tabang sa amuang mga mag-uuma isip usa ka myembro sa kooperatiba. Kay daghan mi ug benipisyo nga madawat sa among pagbaligya sa among abot gawas nga dili name maglisod kung asa ibaligya naa pa gyud me madawat nga dividend,” he said.

“Inganyo ug challenge na kaayo me kay mao gyud ni amo gipaabot sukad-sukad sa dugay ng panahon. Dako kayo ni ug tabang nga moangat me sa among panginabuhian,” he added. #YEStoDavaoDeOro (Rey Antibo, ID Comval)

Mindanao Gets Most Project Approval in Philippine Rural Development Project

Mindanao is getting the bigger chunk in terms of approval of projects in the Department of Agriculture (DA) Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) through funding from the World Bank, the Philippine Government and Local Government Units (LGUs).

In a press conference hosted by DA in Cagayan de Oro on 8 September 2015, the department reiterated that in fact more than 50% of the approved project for infrastructure is from Mindanao.

DA Undersecretary Emerson Palad said that the ultimate goal of PRDP is to increase income of farmers by 30% at the end of the project.

PRDP is a six year national government platform for an inclusive, value chain-oriented and climate resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. It is the upscale version of the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) where innovations are introduced to address current and emerging challenges like climate change and make rural development more effective.

Arnel De Mesa, Deputy Project Director of PRDP said that there is no specific budget allocation per island for this project. With a total of P27.5B fund resources to spend for six years, 67% or P18.5B goes to infrastructure support, 22% or P7B goes to investments in enterprise, 8% goes to planning and 2% goes to project management.

The projects that will be approved come from the proposals of each LGU.  However, prior to the approval, proposals must go through processes.

First, proposal must be demand driven and must be the need of the community. Second, it must be commodity and market driven wherein there is an assurance of income due to its demand in the market, thus will increase income and generate employment. Third, an LGU must have a Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) where various stakeholders have been consulted.

According to DA regional director Lealyn Ramos, the LGUs of Mindanao have been receptive about the program. This is because they will only spend 10% of the total budget for a project approved; 80% would come from the World Bank and the other 10% from the national government.

Ramos said that there is no limit to the project an LGU wants to propose provided that they can produce their 10% share and they can provide documents.

In Mindanao, she said that there are already 75 provincial LGUs out of 81 who are engaged in PRDP. Total of 23 farm-to-market road (FMR) projects or P930M budget have already been approved for Northern Mindanao. Meanwhile, P4.9B worth of various projects have already been approved for Mindanao island and another P4.9B is waitlisted for review.

Ramos said that we are now into up scaling of products. If a farmer is into cacao, then products would include chocolates; there will be factory and packaging will be improved.

The Department reiterates that they are very strict in terms of the implementation of this project. They have now what you call online tracking tool, geotag, wherein photos of the before, during and after of the project will be put online by contractors. Through geotagging, they will know if a project is already done in the area. The department assures that there is no duplication of project in the same area. (JMOR/PIA10)