After typhoon Lando ransacked most of Cordillera’s vegetable producing communities way back October 2015, 27 farmer associations and cooperatives are now more motivated as ever in their livelihood projects/ micro enterprises with funding support from the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP).

Earlier, these associations requested funding support from the Project’s I-REAP (Enterprise Development) Component. The Project Support Office (PSO) later issued No Objection Letter-1 on the 27 small livelihood projects or micro-enterprise proposals of various farmer groups in the provinces of Benguet, Mt. Province and Abra. This indicates that the proponent LGUs can now proceed with the procurement process.

Benguet province received the biggest budget, having the most approved  with a total cost amounting to P12,563,535.00. Most of these enterprises are on the rehabilitation of greenhouses and nurseries, input provision for affected farmer members and support to vegetable production thru greenhouse technology. The other enterprises are on hog raising and meat processing, beekeeping, and farm mechanization services for highland vegetable production.

For the province of Abra, nine micro-enterprise proposals on cattle fattening and marketing were approved with a total cost of P9,000,000.00.

Moreover, four micro-enterprises were also approved in Mountain Province having a total cost of P4,927,180.00. These include enterprises in support to vegetable production, swine fattening and marketing, and farm mechanization.

To date, some of these proposals are now under procurement and soon to receive No Objection Letter-2 which will then allow the proponent LGUs to proceed with the awarding of contracts to the winning bidders.

Once implemented, these micro-enterprises are expected to provide sustainable income generating activities to farmer-members whose livelihood were affected by typhoon Lando. (Elvy S. Taquio, DA-PRDP CARPCO InfoACE Unit)