Provincial and municipal LGUs in CAR were oriented on the updated guidelines and documentary requirements of the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) Scale-up, held from August 30 to 31 in Baguio City.

Some Farmer Cooperatives and Associations (FCAs) also participated in the orientation.

The activity was intended to orient existing and new proponent LGUs and FCAs on the updated implementation processes and documentary requirements, should they opt to propose new enterprise and infrastructure subprojects for funding under the DA-PRDP Scale-up.

During the orientation, Regional Project Coordination Office (RPCO)-CAR I-PLAN Component Head Dr. Susan D. Balanza, representing OIC-Regional Executive Director Atty. Jennilyn M. Dawayan, highlighted that the PRDP is a commodity-based special project unlike the other subprojects implemented under the DA which are community-based.

“In PRDP, enterprise and infrastructure subprojects are implemented to support specific commodities – the enterprise subprojects generate income to benefit its members and the community as well. There are also additional economic contributions such as job generation and at the same time through the enterprise, you are demanding production from specific commodities as your input,” expressed Dr. Balanza.

As part of the orientation, the I-REAP guidelines for PRDP Scale-up was presented by National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) I-REAP Alternate Component Head Leny Pecson (via online). 

She discussed that in the PRDP Scale-up, the project will partner with private business entities that are willing to enter into marketing contracts or buy-back agreements with partner FCAs/FCA cluster wherein they can provide cash/in-kind investments such as equipment, facilities, or infrastructures to the SPs.

RPCO-CAR Rural Infrastructure Engineer Pio A. Farong-ey also discussed updates on the I-BUILD guidelines and requirements and I-PLAN Component Head Dr. Balanza, the updates on I-PLAN. 

The participants were reminded that the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) should serve as their main industry map to determine the focus of interventions.

Other discussions included an overview of the updated operations manual and documentary requirements of the PRDP support units and updates on the enterprise operations of completed and ongoing enterprise subprojects in the Cordillera provinces.

To date, there are already 101 completed enterprise and infrastructure subprojects in CAR that were implemented under the DA-PRDP. For the DA-PRDP Scale-up, several proposed infrastructure subprojects are already under review.// Elvy T. Estacio, RPCO CAR InfoACE