CALAPAN CITY, ORIENTAL MINDORO – The Provincial Project Management and Implementing Unit (PPMIU) of Oriental Mindoro recently held its 3^rd interagency meeting with the signatories of the 2017 Memorandum of Understanding for the calamansi industry.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the regional offices of Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Landbank of the Philippines, Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology (MINSCAT), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

As presented by the Provincial Agriculture Office (PAgO), headed by Provincial Agriculturist Christine Pine, some of the said agencies accomplished new interventions for the improvement of the calamansi industry.

The DOST, for an instance, successfully arranged a consultancy training for agricultural productivity enhancement while the DA held a training on off-season fruiting technology of calamansi.

The PAgO, on the other hand, distributed 25,000 pieces of calamansi planting materials to the calamansi farmers of the whole province.

The initiative of the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) to gather national government agencies, local government units, and the private sector is designed to harmonize interventions as well as maximize the resources and the use of key technologies to develop rural agricultural productions.

In the Province of Oriental Mindoro, two new World Bank-funded subprojects were recently approved as part of the interventions for calamansi.

The first one is the Upgrading of Calamansi Processing Facility of the Matulatula Agrarian Reform Community Cooperative (MARCCO). Given the rising demand for calamansi-based products such as concentrates, purees and ready-to-drink juices, MARCCO aims to improve its amenities to take advantage of this growing market domestically and internationally.

Another project is the Concreting of Tigkan – General Esco – Mahabang Parang Farm-to-market Road (FMR) in the Municipality of Naujan. The 5.80-kilometer road is expected to improve the lives and socio-economic status of around 2,004 households in the area. ### (Leira Vic Colongon, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)

The Provincial Agriculture Office leads the 3rd interagency meeting in Calapan City with the signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding for calamansi. (Photo by Leira Vic Colongon, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)