The North Luzon cluster of the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) held its first general assembly for 2023 on February 15, 2023.

Spearheaded by the Project Support Office, with partner project implementers from the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO), Regional Project Coordination Offices (RPCOs), and local government units in the cluster, the assembly aimed to present and assess the performance of the cluster in terms of project implementation from the previous year and provide an overview of the upcoming PRDP Scale-Up.

Deputy Project Director Elma Mananes led the presentation of the updates on the overall accomplishments of the cluster with data as of December 2022.

Cluster Component Updates

Local and National Planning

As presented, there are currently thirty-three (33) approved value chain analyses (VCAs) in the cluster that support twenty-seven (27) agri-fishery commodities. A total of twenty-two (22) provinces and 1 (one) city in the cluster have commodity investment plans (CIPs) that cover twenty-four (24) commodities.

A total of 241 subprojects identified using the CIP were approved, amounting to Php 11.46 billion.

Coffee topped the list of commodities linked to PRDP enterprise and infrastructure subprojects with Php 2.8 million in total investments, followed by mango with Php 1.54M, then aromatic and pigmented rice with Php 1.51M, onion with Php 1.4M, and dairy with Php 1.7M.

The Cordillera region covers the most subprojects (74%) that support coffee with 26 out of 35 amounting to Php 2.12 billion. The Ilocos region holds 16 SPs (59%) for mango worth Php 1.20B, the Cagayan Valley region has 21 SPs (53%) for aromatic/pigmented rice and 18 SPs (90%) for dairy worth Php 627.9M and 1.16B, respectively. Lastly, the Central Luzon region got 17 SPs (74%) supporting the onion which costs Php 1.13B.

Infrastructure Component

The cluster now has 177 approved infrastructure subprojects amounting to Php 10.48 billion.

Of the total number of approved SPs, 151 are already completed, worth Php 7.33 billion. These comprise 65 other infras, 47 farm-to-market roads, 21 communal irrigation systems (CIS), 8 FMR with bridges, 8 portable water systems (PWS), and 2 bridges.

Twenty (20) SPs (Php 2.45B) are ongoing, 1 SP (Php 57.94M) has No Objection Letter (NOL) 2, and 5 SPs (Php 636.46M) have NOL1.

All 126 subprojects worth Php 5.07B and 25 SPs worth Php 2.25B funded under the Original Loan (OL) and First Additional Financing (AF1), respectively, are now completed.

Meanwhile, 19 SPs worth Php 2.23B funded under the Second Additional Financing (AF2) are in ongoing implementation.

Under the OL, ninety-five percent (95%) of the Php 4.61B obligation has already been disbursed amounting to Php 4.38B. Under the AF1, ninety-nine percent (99%) or Php 2.01B has been disbursed out of the Php 2.02B AF1 obligation. Lastly, under AF2, thirty-nine percent (39%) or Php 464.28M of the Php 1.19B obligated funds under AF2 have been disbursed.

Enterprise Component

For I-REAP Component, it was presented that the cluster now has 344 approved SPs amounting to Php 1.349B.

Out of which, 263 SPs (Php 261.63M) are micro-enterprises, 65 (Php 531.17M) are small enterprises, and 16 (Php 556.82M) are medium enterprises.

Three-hundred twenty-eight (328) SPs amounting to Php 860.20M are now completed, 5 SPs worth Php 162.35M are in ongoing implementation, while 11 SPs worth Php 327.08M are for procurement process (NOL1).

The obligation versus disbursement under the OL is now 99% while 36% for AF1.

PRDP Scale-Up Overview

National Deputy Project Director Shandy M. Hubilla presented the overview of the PRDP Scale-Up, highlighting the new Project’s strategic directions, project development objectives, target beneficiaries, and major components, among other things.

According to him, the PRDP Scale-Up is a proposed continuing project of the existing PRDP which will still be funded by the World Bank for $ 600M and is expected to be implemented for six years from 2023 to 2029.

Director Hubilla also laid out the proposed calibrated cost-sharing among the Project, national government, and partner proponent groups or local government units in funding and implementing approved subprojects under I-REAP and I-BUILD.

(Ericson M. Guiao, PSO NL InfoACE)