Bicol region will soon harvest the seeds of progress sown by Bicol’s “best among the best planners” in terms of agriculture and fisheries development. At the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Joint PPMIU-RPCO Year-End Assessment and CY 2016 Planning Workshop held on January 19-22, 2016 at La Venezia Hotel in Legazpi City, Department of Agriculture Region V Regional Technical Director and PRDP Deputy Project Director Dr. Elena B. delos Santos lauded the Provincial Project Management and Implementing Units (PPMIU) calling them “best among the best” as she announced that Bicol received over one billion worth of sub-projects since its inception in Bicol in 2014.

“For only about two years, we were able to get for our constituents more than one billion pesos in terms of sub-projects,” delos Santos said.

Over P1.1 billion-worth of these are infrastructure development projects while over P91M are business enterprises. These sub-projects are expected to raise the annual real farm incomes of PRDP household beneficiaries by at least 5 percent, increase the value of annual marketed output by 7 percent, and boost the number of farmers & fishers with improved access to DA services by 20 percent.

In just two years, PRDP has signed memoranda of agreement with five of the provinces in the region except Masbate, which is undertaking finalization. Value chain analysis (VCA) for three priority commodities were already issued with No Objection Letter namely geonet for Albay and Camarines Norte, coco sap sugar for Camarines Sur and abaca for Catanduanes. Meanwhile, VCAs for eight other priority commodities of the six provinces and Naga City in the region are awaiting approval.

VCA is a science-based tool adopted by PRDP to identify market opportunities that can promote growth, determine constraints to the industry’s progress, describe interfirm relations’ nature and justify basis for project interventions. It is also designed to develop collaboration and generate stakeholders’ commitment to the project implementation. VCA serves as the basis in formulating Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) a three-year strategic plan crafted by the Department of Agriculture and the provincial local government units (PLGUs). PCIP rationalizes the interventions and sub-projects for PRDP funding within the various segments of the commodity value chain. The six provinces in the region are currently updating their PCIPs while Naga City is finalizing its PCIP for pili.

Bicol region also got the lion’s share of the PRDP South Luzon’s budget for infrastructure development with 31 pipelined sub-projects worth a total of P3,084,429,944. Twenty six of these are farm-to-market roads (FMRs) while five are civil works in support to the enterprise under Investments in Rural Enterprises and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity (I-REAP). Bicol has three on-going infrastructure development sub-projects namely the P196M-worth Concreting of Pistola-Tablon FMR in Oas, Albay, the Rehabilitation/Upgrading of San Isidro-Pag Oring Nuevo FMR in Libmanan, Camarines Sur and the Upgrading of Cuco-Bagong Silang FMR in Pasacao, Camarines Sur, which cost an aggregate amount of P94.8M.

Three enterprise development sub-projects in Bicol will also benefit from PRDP funding. These are the P5.7M-worth Albay Coco Geonets Manufacturing Project in Libon, Albay, the Coco Geonets Production Project in Santa Elena, Camarines Norte, which costs P4.2M, and the P4.8M-worth Camarines Sur Coco Sap Sugar Processing. These sub-projects are projected to impact the lives of farmer-members of Tunay Tapat Lahing Pilipino Cooperative in Albay, Samahang Organic/Fair Trade Coconut Farmers Bicol-Quezon in Camarines Norte and Federation of Baao Women Multi-purpose Cooperative in Baao, Camarines Sur.

PRDP Project Support Office South Luzon Director Shandy M. Hubilla congratulated the region’s PRDP staff and provincial partners for their satisfactory work performance. He then challenged them to do better in 2016 particularly that World Bank, the project’s funding agency, will now assess the implementation of enterprise development sub-projects on the ground.

Hubilla also announced that PRDP is now accepting proposals for small livelihood projects worth P1.2 million for Nona-affected areas in Albay and Sorsogon, and Lando-affected areas in Catanduanes.

Delos Santos also expressed her gratitude to PRDP’s partners in implementing agri-fishery development projects in the region. Moreover, she sought their further assistance in preparing additional sub-project proposals that will benefit more farmers and fisherfolk in Bicol.

PRDP is a six-year project being implemented by the Department of Agriculture designed to establish a modern, inclusive, value-chain oriented and climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. (Annielyn L. Baleza, I-SUPPORT InfoACE Unit, DA-RAFIS 5)

BEST AMONG THE BEST. PRDP-Bicol Deputy Project Director Dr. Elena B. Delos Santos (2nd row, seated, 4th from left) pose with the Regional Project Coordination Office V component heads and staff and their City/Provincial Project Management and Implementing Units counterparts during the Joint PPMIU-RPCO Year-End Assessment and CY 2016 Planning Workshop held on January 19-22, 2016 at La Venezia Hotel in Legazpi City.