“Kung ako ‘yong Proponent Group, bakit ko pa palalagpasin ang opportunity? Pwede namang in-kind ang equity?” said DARRegional Dir. Homer P. Tobias during one of the promotional consultations for the Philippine Rural Development. DAR helps promote PRDP
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Regional Office 1 initiated a region-wide campaign to promote the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) among its personnel and DAR-assisted farmer associations and cooperatives from January 19-22, 2016.
DAR Regional Dir. Homer P. Tobias, who spearheaded the campaign, and is a member of the Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB) in Region I sees PRDP as an avenue for farmers to avail more government assistance. According to Dir. Tobias, with the PRDP and DAR having the same set of clienteles – the famers, the Project is a perfect complement of the Department’s programs.
In particular, Dir. Tobias encouraged the farmers to propose under the Small Livelihood Project (SLP) of the PRDP.
As of November 2015, the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) has allowed the proposal of SLP in the Ilocos Region to mitigate the effects of Typhoon Lando among farmers. Contrary to the regular enterprise subprojects, the SLP can be proposed by any eligible association or cooperative to support any commodity.
Under the SLP, the farmers’ associations and/or cooperatives may avail a P1 million enterprise and/or P800,000 infrastructure to address the damages incurred during Typhoon Lando.
The PRDP is a six-year national agri-fishery development project by the national government through a loan from the World Bank. However, SLP proposals will only be funded until 2016. With a total fund of Php 27.4 billion, the Project aims to build climate-resilient infrastructures and market-oriented and sustainable enterprises.
The PRDP employs counter-parting scheme among the Department of Agriculture, the Provincial or Municipal Governments and the Farmer Associations and Cooperatives.
This scheme aims to encourage the local government units to invest in agriculture and for the farmers to sustain a progressive and profitable agri-fishery enterprise. Also, unlike other government projects, PRDP has no fund allocation for provinces or municipalities. PRDP funds projects according to the promptness and completeness of proposals.
At the end of the promotional campaign, the DAR Region 1 committed to assist the completion of more Small Livelihood Projects (SLPs) in the Region. (Ilocos InfoACE)
