By Ericson M. Guiao, PSO NL Writer

The Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Regional Project Coordination 2 (RPCO2) hosted the first-ever Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) forum on September 17, 2024, in Cauayan City, Isabela.

With the theme Converge for Growth, the forum seeks to bring together key stakeholders from the Provincial LGUs, National Government Agencies (NGAs), State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), and the private sector to raise awareness, collaborate on and support the development of priority commodities in the region and tackle agricultural issues, promote investment, and enhance rural livelihoods, particularly in the agri-fishery sector.

Specifically, the forum aims to promote a unified planning approach, leverage PRDP initiatives, foster stakeholder commitment, address past gaps in CIP implementation, increase CIP uptake, and strengthen partnerships and collaboration.

In her message, Project Director Rose Mary Aquino urged the participants to partake actively in the forum as everyone has important roles in the development of investment plans in the region, highlighting that success lies on the active involvement of the stakeholders.

“This is something that we’ve always wanted — to enhance our stakeholders’ understanding of the Commodity Investment Plan (CIP) and to synchronize our plans so that we could all progress together, not just by province but as a Region 2 family. We aim to work smarter than harder because when plans are synchronized, we attain efficiency,” Aquino said.

“Hence, may I ask for everyone’s commitment to actively participate in this undertaking. Makiisa tayo at makibahagi because we all have important roles to play in developing our CIPs. In our convergence lies growth, in growth lies success, and our success lies within us. Let us then converge towards growth and success,” she added.

As part of the activity, a series of presentations were done to brief the participants on the PRDP Scale-Up, emphasizing the roles of the LGUs and NGAs, overview of the PRDP I-PLAN Component and the Regional and Provincial Priority Commodities, and the importance of CIPs and leveraging initiatives.

The LGUs (Provincial, City, and Municipal) play an important role in the value chain of the priority commodities of the concerned provinces. They are responsible for formulating and regularly updating the PCIPs, among other things.

Meanwhile, NGAs are responsible for providing technical assistance and policy guidance to LGUs, as well as allocating government resources to fund various CIP interventions.

Moreover, a representative from each province presented their CIP and champion priority commodity, highlighting the input provision, production, post-harvest, and handling, processing, marketing, and distribution.

The province of Isabela and the City of Santiago presented their focus commodity beef cattle, Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya provinces presented the coffee commodity, Batanes with garlic, and Cagayan province presented the dairy carabao.

As the DA-PRDP gradually transitions to Scale-Up, continued and strong collaboration and commitment among the stakeholders is important to successfully implement the CIP in every province.

To formalize this commitment, the PLGUs together with various stakeholders signed and pledged their commitment support to the enhanced PCIP of each of the provinces, affirming their dedication to collaborate for the implementation of the PCIP to ensure the successful realization of its objectives in raising incomes, productivity, and competitiveness in rural areas. ###