The Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) steps up strategies to fast track approval and implementation of development interventions in enterprise support.

In the past nine months following the nation-wide quarantine imposed by the government due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DA-PRDP has played a part in the market and delivery of agricultural products throughout the Cordillera provinces.

With the retrofitting of the second Additional Financing (AF II), strategic interventions will now be focused to help producer groups recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The I-REAP (enterprise development) component identified major strategies to fast track approval and implementation of proposed enterprise subprojects under the AF II and provide continuous technical assistance to Proponent Groups (PGs).

For enterprise subprojects proposed under the AF II, 60 percent of the total investment requirement will be from the World Bank Loan Proceeds, 20 percent from the DA, and another 20 percent from the PG, still in cash or in-kind. The role of the LGU is now focused on providing technical assistance to the PGs during business planning, supervision and monitoring of subproject implementation, and monitoring of enterprise operation.

Subproject proposals should still be aligned on the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP). However, interventions will be identified from a regional perspective considering the interplay of different municipalities/provinces in the commodity value chain.

For the first year, completed and operational enterprise subprojects on rehabilitation (formerly Small Livelihood Projects) particularly those without civil works will be prioritized for the scale up.

Upon the review and approval of the Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB), the Regional Project Coordination Office (RPCO) will be the one to issue No Objection Letter 1 (NOL 1) to subproject proposals amounting to P10 million (M) and below and the Project Support Office (PSO) for P10 M and above. Subprojects with a total cost of P30 M and above will be subject to the review and approval of the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) and the World Bank.

The procurement of goods will also be done by the PG using Community Participation Shopping and Community Force Account (CFA) with a threshold of US $100,000.00.

Interested farmer groups/PGs shall submit their letter of intent along with their eligibility requirements to the RPCO for review and validation before proceeding to the next steps.

The RPCO-CAR has already began orienting PGs with regards to the revised implementation guidelines and requirements of new enterprise subprojects for AF II funding.

With the changes in the implementation process, the PGs will be capacitated on the procurement process and implementation of their enterprise subprojects. ### Elvy Taquio Estacio (DA-PRDP)