The Philippine Rural Development Project National Project Coordinating Office (PRDP-NPCO) recently approved the implementation of a farm-to-market road, to benefit coffee producers in Bauko, Mountain Province.

Proposed in 2015, the Improvement of Banata-Sumey-Ang-Sadsadan Farm-to-Market Road was recently  issued a “No Objection” by the PRDP NPCO to award of contract to 3K Rock Engineering amounting to P64,803,686.56.

The 4.577 kilometer road improvement subproject will benefit a population of at least 4,659 who are engaged in the production of traditional rice, coffee, crucifers, white potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, various rootcrops and legumes.

Bauko is a 4th class municipality located at the south western part of Mountain Province, but was found to be the number 1 coffee producing municipality in the province as per expanded vulnerability and suitability analysis (E-VSA) result for the province.

According to the coffee value chain summary, the proposed road project is located in a predominantly farm area which happen to be a vegetable and an Arabica coffee producing area as well. The road shall address the main constraint of the coffee industry here, which is poor farm to market access road.  Accordingly, this was the reason why the said road was prioritized by the province for improvement among other such roads.

“The improvement of the road shall support input supply, production, processing, trading and final sale of coffee in the province”, said Ms. Lily Rose Kollin, head of the Provincial Project Management and Implementing Unit (PPMIU) in Mountain Province. (Mabel Zabala, RPCO CAR InfoACE Unit)