With the aim to mainstream the practices, innovations, and tools developed and employed in the operations of the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project, the I-BUILD Component held a workshop on the ‘Mainstreaming of PRDP Tools and Innovations into the DA Mechanization and Infrastructure Projects’ from August 12 – 15, 2022 at Subic Bay Travelers Hotel, Zambales.

The activity was participated in by representatives from various offices and agencies, including the Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering (BAFE), Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), regional field offices (III, IV-B, V, VI, IX, X, and XI), Project Support Offices (North Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao), and National Project Coordination Office (NPCO).

In her welcome remarks, PSO North Luzon Deputy Project Director, Elma Mananes, shared how PRDP helped in the construction of different interventions in the regular programs, such as warehouses, with its practices and innovations developed through the years.

“PRDP has a lot of good practices and innovations that could help in the implementation of projects in the regions, and I hope this will be the start that regular offices come to appreciate and adopt these in their programs,” Mananes added.

NPCO I-BUILD Alternate Component Head, Engr. Roy Abaya gave the overview of the activity in which he emphasized the objective of the workshop.

“We want to share in this activity what we are doing under PRDP because we want to improve the capacity and efficiency of producing quality projects. We will introduce the features and how we work under PRDP, and we’ll see how these can be adopted by regular programs of other offices under DA,” he said.

NPCO Road and Bridge Specialist, Engr. Frederick Agasen, presented the proposed tools and processes for mainstreaming in DA’s operation for infrastructure development based on the I-BUILD operation manual.

According to Engr. Agasen, the workshop aimed to come up with a standardized outline or module design for every operation, integrating the science-based tools of PRDP into the processes for infrastructure projects of the attached agencies of the DA.

To easily facilitate the sharing of knowledge among the offices involved and determine what parts of the proposed tools to be adopted, improved, or modify, the participants were grouped into six under the categories of Project Development Cycle, Farm-to-Market Road (FMR), Irrigation, Other Infrastructures, Feasibility Study, and Operations and Maintenance Audit.

NPCO Senior Institutional Development Specialist, Renato Manantan presented the draft guidelines on the PRDP Integration for Infrastructure Development that includes training needs assessment, capacity development plan preparation, training design/module preparation, training implementation, documentation of the implementation of mainstreaming activities, monitoring/assessment of the innovation integration, and sharing the monitoring/assessment results.

A series of presentations of output was conducted on the last day of the activity, wherein outputs were submitted to the NPCO for consolidation and further review.

Over the years of its implementation, the DA-PRDP has been able to produce innovative tools and develop good practices that have become instrumental in constructing quality infrastructure and enterprise projects and promoting transparency in its planning, budgeting, and monitoring.

It can also be recalled that the former Agriculture Secretary, William D. Dar, issued Memorandum Order No. 75 series of 2021, highlighting the integration of PRDP innovations in the different programs of the agriculture department in line with the “OneDA Agenda” key strategies toward transformative agriculture and fishery sector. (Ericson M. Guiao, PSO North Luzon InfoACE)