The Cordillera Administrative Region’s (CAR)  coffee producing provinces  were able to submit 18 subprojects to be funded under the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA PRDP) to improve farmers’ income following the coffee value chain approach.

The  subproject proposals  cover farm-to-market roads (FMRs) and three business enterprises with corresponding civil works.

With an aggregate estimated cost of  P1,774,365,771.54,  the province of Benguet proposed fours FMRs and one enterprise with civil works with an aggregate cost of P704M, followed by Kalinga with four FMRs and one enterprise with civil works amounting to more than  P560M,  Mountain Province with three  FMRs and one enterprise with civil works  with more than P310M  and Ifugao with one FMR with bridge, estimated at P198M.

As gleaned from the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Regional Project Coordinating Office- CAR reports as of August 14, 2015,  five infra subproject proposals endorsed to the PSO and NPCO have received no objection letters (NOL1), 11 still awaits NOL1  while two are in progress for RPAB approval.

Under the PRDP, coffee has been selected as the pilot commodity in CAR being the second top producing region in the country among other factors.  The subprojects herein proposed are expected to address the PRDP’s main objectives which, in essence,  aims to  increase coffee farmers’ income and develop a more market-oriented and climate-resilient agriculture in the identified coffee production areas in the region.

The PRDP is a six-year World Bank-funded project under the Department of Agriculture which partners with the local government units and the private sector in providing key infrastructure, facilities, technology and information that will raise incomes, productivity and competitiveness in the countryside. (MBZabala, InfoACE RPCO CAR)

Road portions of the Improvement of Poblacion-Bantay FMR in Paracelis, Mountain Province (Photo by Engr. Elsa Gaspar, RIE RPCO CAR)