The Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) conducted the Rapid Appraisal of Emerging Benefits (RAEB) on the farm mechanization service facility subproject of the Nagkaisang Magsasaka Agricultural Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative (NMAPMPC) on July 27-29, 2022 at the cooperative’s headquarters in Talavera, Nueva Ecija.

The lack of access to efficient technology and the farmers’ inability to pay upfront for equipment led this subproject to intervene with these constraints identified in the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan. Hence, the acquired machineries were aimed to provide the farmers with accessible and affordable services.

The subproject included the acquisition of three farm tractors with complete implements and trailers, three mini 4-wheel drive tractors with complete implements, three multi-tillers, and one 6-wheeler elf with a total cost of P15.76-million funded by PRDP’s enterprise component, I-REAP, including a P5.1-million equity from NMAPMPC. Led by the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) unit from the Regional Project Coordination Office 3 and its counterpart from the North Luzon Cluster Project Support Office, the RAEB is a tool used by the PRDP to assess the subproject’s impact primarily on the income of farmer-beneficiaries.

“Ang binabayaran namin dyan sa tractor ngayon sa coop, mas mababa sila eh. Saka nababayaran namin nang pagkayari naming umani. Tulad no’n sa diesel nakatipid na kami do’n; imbis na dalawang lusong namin ng hand tractor na mano-mano, ngayon sa tractor isang lusong na lang. Hindi na kami masyadong nahihirapan.”, attested by a 36-year-old farmer from Talavera, Arnel Serrano.

“We pay cheaper fees now for the tractor from the cooperative. We’re also allowed to pay the fees after we have harvested our crops. We’re also able to save money from diesel; instead of having to go through our field twice using the manual hand tractor, we’d only have to go through it once now with the tractor. We don’t have to exert as much effort as before.”

The RAEB team gathered the necessary data through a household survey, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and spot interviews among beneficiaries and stakeholders of the subproject. These data are currently being processed by the M&E unit to identify the subprojects’ benefits and overall impact. (Ram Bill Bautista, InfoACE, RPCO 3)