Maria Aurora, Aurora — Proponent group members that may benefit from two I-REAP subprojects were surveyed on their incomes and sources of living, as part of the baseline data gathering by the joint team of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Unit and I-REAP Component of the Regional Project Coordination Office 3 (RPCO3) and Project Support Office (PSO).

These subprojects are the Establishment of Processing Facilities with Solar Dryer for Coir and Coir By-products of Maria Aurora Development Cooperative (MADECO) and the Organic Rice Production and Marketing of Suguit Rang-ay Farmers Association, Inc. with project costs amounting to P14.6M and P2M respectively.

MADECO is the oldest cooperative in Aurora Province with a membership base all over the province and neighbouring areas. At present, it has 1,878registered members, 73% of which or 1,376 members are coconut farmers; 1,001 are female and 375 are male. Currently, the coop has credit interventions to individuals involved in coconut related activities.

Meanwhile, Suguit Rang-ay Farmers Association, Inc., is a farmers group registered under the Securities and Exchange Commission. The proponent has a roster of 53 members, 27 are male and 26 are female. Most of the members are rice producers since the cropping pattern in Suguit is rice-rice. The current business engagements of the cooperative are rice milling and organic rice trading.

“The purpose of the baseline data gathering is to have a basis for the I-REAP’s Project Development Objectives set forth by the PRDP among the beneficiaries and Coop members,” said Nelson Aquino from PSO M&E.

Results and findings from the data gathering will be vital for the approval and implementation of proposed enterprise subprojects under the PRDP. Through conducted surveys, it was revealed that the annual average household income of the beneficiaries in 2015 is P509,421,51 for MADECO and P141,130.83 for Suguit Rang-Ay.

One of the objectives of the former is to increase income of coconut farmers by at least 10 percent during the first year and about 30 percent within 6 years of operation while the latter is to help the farmers in direct marketing of 36% of their produce and to increase income of farmers by 45% through PRDP-SLP.

To date, both of the subprojects are requested by the local government unit to revise the procuring entity from the proponent group to LGU, while the revised procurement plan is still for signature. (Dianne Lapuz, DA-PRDP RPCO3 InfoACE Unit)