The I-PLAN component of the Regional Project Coordination Office 4B recently conducted the “Training-Workshop on the Conduct of Value Chain Analysis (VCA) and Expanded Vulnerability and Suitability Assessment (E-VSA) and Mapping.”

With a series of lectures initiated by Dr. Celso Olido and Timoteo Borromeo Jr., I-PLAN’s Planning Specialist and Planning Officer, respectively, discussions focused on commodity prioritization, data collection and analysis, VCA preparation process, value chain segments, cost and return analysis, VSA, E-VSA, and mapping. Workshops on the drawing of the value chain map and cost and return analysis were also done.

VCA is a tool that focuses on adding value along the chain of activities comprising a particular product or service from its conception, production, transformation, delivery to customers, and disposal after use. The goal of VCA is to identify priority interventions that should strengthen links in the chain as well as to enhance the competitiveness of especially selected commodities.

This is one of the group presentations during the workshop on the drawing of the value chain map during the second day of the training-workshop. (Photo by Leira Vic Colongon, DA-PRDP RPCO 4B InfoACE Unit)

The three-day activity, which was held in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, was attended by technical personnel from the Department of Agriculture (DA) 4B and the Oriental Mindoro Provincial Local Government Unit (PLGU).

“Feel free to tell us what we can do to assist you. Our target is to make these tools, the VCA and the identification of intervention based on E-VSA, mainstream,” said Marilyn Bienes, MIMAROPA I-PLAN Component Head.

Bienes added that they also invited the coordinators of DA banner programs in MIMAROPA, one of which is the High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP) to further mainstream the said PRDP science-based tools.

“This [training] has been an eye-opener for me in terms of the methods that we can use in getting the data that we [in the HVCDP] need especially now that those [commodities] which should be our priority are the ones that still don’t have VCA,” shared MIMAROPA HVCDP Head Corazon Sinnung Sinnung.

The members of the Oriental Mindoro PLGU also shared the same sentiment, saying that they learned very important key points even though some of them encountered VCA for the first time.

The MIMAROPA I-PLAN team reiterated to the participants that it is important to immediately gather the data that they will need in writing their respective VCA. This is in preparation for the upcoming writeshop for the priority commodities in the MIMAROPA Region. ### (Leira Vic Colongon, DA-PRDP RPCO 4B InfoACE Unit)