“We will participate [in PRDP] aggressively.”

This is how Celia Atienza, PRDP I-REAP Focal Person of the Batangas Provincial Project Management and Implementation Unit (PPMIU), described their province’s resolve to participate in DA-PRDP during the Enterprise Prioritization and Business Planning Workshop in Batangas City.

“Since being elected as the chief executive of Batangas, Gov. Hermilando Mandanas has identified agriculture as one of the priority areas in his administration. He also believes that PRDP will help in making it successful,” Atienza, who is also the Provincial Cooperative, Livelihood, and Enterprise Development Office (PCLEDO) Head, said.

Atienza also stated how helpful the workshop was in learning more about the PRDP processes. She mentioned, “We can see that the data used in identifying possible sub-projects are based on science-backed tools. For example, we cannot just propose a sub-project if the commodity does not have Value Chain Analysis (VCA) and is not part of the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP).”

The enterprises subjected to the prioritization workshop are based on the dairy cattle industry. The dairy cattle is the only commodity of Batangas with VCA and PCIP that has been endorsed by the Provincial Development Council (PDC).

Among the potential enterprises included in the Batangas PCIP, only three were identified as stand-alone and can be funded under the PRDP’s enterprise development (I-REAP) component. These enterprises are the dairy cattle production, forage production, and milk collection center construction or rehabilitation.

Members of the PPMIU who participated in the workshop were asked to rate each enterprise based on pre-selected matrix. The said matrix covers the importance of the product segment or enterprise to the local economy and market potential (30 points each), resource base (20 points), and environmental impact and women’s participation (10 points each). The dairy cattle production emerged as the top enterprise.

“This activity only helps Batangas find which enterprise will most likely succeed in their area. The final decision and shape of their chosen enterprise will still be on their hands,” Richmond Pablo, Regional Project Coordination Office (RPCO) I-REAP Business Development Specialist, said.

Atienza also clarified that the province has yet to choose which dairy cooperative will serve as the proponent group for the identified enterprise. “As per PRDP, we will be the one to choose which of them do we think can succeed in this venture. And we can only do that after we finalize the business model,” she said.

Pablo assured that the RPCO I-REAP team will help the proponent groups from scratch. He said, “We want all provinces in CALABARZON to benefit from the national government’s loan from World Bank.”

Once approved, the dairy cattle production enterprise will become the first PRDP sub-project of the Batangas provincial government.

The provinces of Cavite, Laguna, and Quezon have ongoing and proposed sub-projects in the pipeline with the latter having the most number of enterprise and infrastructure sub-projects. ### (Lawrence Albert Bariring, DA-PRDP RPCO 4A InfoACE Unit)

CALABARZON RPCO Business Development Specialist Richmond Pablo leads the enterprise prioritization workshop.

Batangas PPMIU participates during the discussion on enterprise prioritization.