BAGUIO CITY – A 14.8 million peso worth of sub-project proposal under the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project’s (DA-PRDP) Investments for Rural Enterprises and Agricultural Productivity (I-REAP) component has been endorsed to the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) with the approval of the Cordillera Region’s Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB)   on August 26 at the Supreme Hotel in this city.

Members of CAR-RPAB headed by regional executive director Marilyn Sta. Catalina sign approval of the 14 million worth of Kalinga I-REAP sub-project proposal.

The project proposal called the Integrated Coffee Processing and Marketing, with a total project cost of P14, 804,033.33, is a response to Kalinga coffee farmers’ clamor for alternative buyers with a better market price as the local buyers currently dictate the price of dry processed unsorted green beans.

Dupligan Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (DUFAMPCO), having been chosen as the lead proponent among the member cooperatives of the Kalinga Coffee Cluster, will partner with the local government of Kalinga to   manage the proposed enterprise which is expected to increase the value of coffee in the province through different interventions in the coffee value chain particularly on production, processing and marketing.

Kalinga provincial agriculturist Domingo Bakilan presents before the members of the Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB) the I-REAP sub-project proposal of Kalinga.

The functional cooperatives in the area and their members equipped with skills through different capability trainings and seminars are among the identified strengths of the enterprise.

The said sub-project is the second proposal submitted by the province of Kalinga for RPAB approval, following the recent approval of the P101, 837, 500.00 worth of I-BUILD sub-project proposal in the province. (maria isabel zabala/ aurora catu)